Author: Mvungi, M.
Paper Title Page
MOPMS013 Progress in the Conversion of the In-house Developed Control System to EPICS and related technologies at iThemba LABS 347
 
  • I.H. Kohler, M.A. Crombie, C. Ellis, M.E. Hogan, H.W. Mostert, M. Mvungi, C. Oliva, J.V. Pilcher, N. Stodart
    iThemba LABS, Somerset West, South Africa
 
  This paper highlights challenges associated with the upgrading of the iThemba LABS control system. Issues include maintaining an ageing control system which is based on a LAN of PCs running OS/2, using in-house developed C-code, hardware interfacing consisting of elderly CAMAC and locally manufactured SABUS [1] modules. The developments around integrating the local hardware into EPICS, running both systems in parallel during the transition period, and the inclusion of other environments like Labview are discussed. It is concluded that it was a good decision to base the underlying intercommunications on channel access and to move the majority of process variables over to EPICS given that it is at least an international standard, less dependant on a handful of local developers, and enjoys the support from a very active world community.
[1] SABUS - a collaboration between Iskor (PTY) Ltd. and CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial reseach) (1980)
 
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