9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Epics to TINE translator Matthias Clausen, DESY Hamburg Phil Duval, DESY Hamburg Zoltan Kakucs, DESY Hamburg

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Contents Accelerator Controls at DESY EPICS and its CA History of creating EPICS to TINE translator Naming convention Mode of operation Conclusions, summary and future

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Accelerator Controls at DESY Past –hampered by the “many- control-systems” syndrome –different subsystems controlled by completely different means –no possibility of intercommunication (HERA) Today –practically all subsystems of HERA in fact controlled by TINE –important exceptions include: Proton Vacuum cryogenics control the super conducting electron RF cavities the power subsystems (EPICS) The cooling subsystems (EPICS)

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg What is EPICS? (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) Process control and data acquisition software toolkit Application Developers can create a control system with it Running under the real-time operating system VxWorks Physically a flat architecture of front-end controllers and operator workstations that communicate via TCP/IP and UDP Software architecture is client/server based Basic components: Operator Interface Channel Access Local area network I/O Controller

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg What is Channel Access (CA) Network protocol A callable interface (library of subroutines) Integrates software modules into the control system CA server >>> connection, get, put,and monitor services CA client >>> access to process DB-s in other IOC-s Communication between databases is accomplished using the CA client library Standardized communication path to a field(s) within a record (process variable) in any IOC database(s). All access to the database is via the database access routines.

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg EPICS data to TINE in the past EPICS tools connected via the CA C/S libraries CA libraries linked to any third party program (TINE based application) Visual Basic Application using the ACOP (Accelerator Component Object Programming) library; last one has built-in the CA functions Unrealized Client-Side Tool Utility –EPICS client-side tools are generic –EPICS client-side tools used only with EPICS

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg “Old way” ca-client ACOP Application ca-server VME crate OS: vxWorks Appl: EPICS UNIX or WindowsNT TINE client CA function

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Disadvantages of using “old way“ Unfriendly update of distributed CA libraries and DLL-s Special VBA using CA functions No naming service available Low priority clients consume resources in critical machines

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg First Ideas Integrate the EPICS IOC-s into the HERA mainstream Build new server, runs directly on the EPICS IOC The server module resides in each one of the system controllers along with that controller’s portion of the distributed EPICS context TINE view of the hardware control to the rest of the CS Control via channel access remain as before Use well implemented local calls like dbpf, dbgf Each server module has its own “mapped” record list

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Requirements Excellent performance without disturbing the real-time control loops in and between subsystems A maximum level of functional flexibility Less additional programming Fit seamlessly into TINE systematics (Alarm, Archive, Naming, Permit, …) Bypass local Channel Access Protocol

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Configuration PC Windows NT VBA Applic TINE I/O Controllers vxWorks EPICS CA Server Field I/O Sun Solaris MEDM CA Field I/O I/O Controllers vxWorks EPICS CA Server TINE Server PC Windows NT X-Session CA

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg IOC DATABASE database access library device drivers Channel Access client C program SNL sequence record support device support database library Channel Access server TINE server Channel Access Client user program WORKSTATION Channel Access Repeater TINE Client user program WINDOWS NT

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Naming convention Database is the heart of an IOC (records) Unique record names across all IOC-s attached to the same TCP/IP subnet. Form: [. ] Each record type has a fixed set of fields: common / specific Access to the database is via the channel or database access routines (exception recSup, devSup)

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Naming convention 2 Each server module has a mapped record list –the real PV names are mapped to TINE registered names –EPICS record names 28 chars, field 4 chars field –TINE device names 16 chars, properties 32 chars TINE names registered as devices Register devices with their truncated TINE names: –List of PV’s and the correspondent TINE names –Dynamically Need to truncate !!!!

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Mode of operation TINE client requires data –Search for TINE device in the local list or reconstruct PV name –Search and get data (database access routines) –Local conversion corresponding TINE client requested data type format –Respond to the request and send the data to the client No need to know the location or other attributes of the data.

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Mode of operation 2 The server is able to send any value to any client TINE application The multiple instances of the server in a control system respond to a request for data by searching for the registered device Name servicing possibility Local access data functionality Directly access to the database access layer

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Extended support for different data types Data type conversions are performed in the server Using EPICS CA standard data types defined in db_access.h like DBR_STRING, _DOUBLE, _FLOAT, _LONG, _CHAR Converting of different data types was possible without major changes in EPICS or TINE code Care should be taken to ensure there is sufficient sized reserved space for all supported data format

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Composites New requirements were identified Extended set of interfaces, additionally set of PV’s Set of arranged TINE devices Identified through collective names Configuration files, contains the composite names and the members of each composite device User can set up his own sets Easily scaleable

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Conclusions, Summary and Future First tests >>> monitor 250 channels by one IOC (stably run) Weather station data transparent to TINE (archive) Possibility to communicate to the EPICS IOC’s through: CA protocol / “TINE-Way” Integrate existing EPICS systems without rebooting Port the EPICS database into TINE control system Keep alive TINE user friendly environment (no special VBA) Restarting of the TINE-Server without booting the system

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg

9-12 Oct 2000PCaPAC 2000, DESY Hamburg Why use? Intercommunication between two different control systems Flexible and friendly updateable –TINE server library in the unbundled tree of the EPICS system (similar base tree) –Automatically update together with new EPICS releases No more distributing new channel access libraries No need special TINE graphical interfaces No use of CA subnet-dependent connections Following the trend of using Windows in control systems TINE has the naming service built-in.