kHz-SLR PC Board Eastbourne, October 2005 for kHz SLR Complete PC Board

Motivation Eastbourne, October 2005  Present kHz Setup at Graz:  Runs nearly perfect, very stable, reliable (DOS...)  It is simple to operate;  Lot of space for additional software routines; etc. etc. BUT:  Not easy to add new hardware, controls, cables...  Needs „drilling holes“ to add simple new features...  Limits on available I/O lines on present FPGA chip;  „Provisional“ or „Grown“ hardware: Eliminate it...  => Decision made to design a new kHz Control Board

Design Goals Eastbourne, October 2005  This kHz SLR PC Board should  Handle / control all common tasks in kHz SLR;  Be flexible, easily adaptable for future tasks;  Be easy to program, with any language;  In other words: It should be a S imple, M odular, I nexpensive L aser E quipment ==> „SMILE“ (And due to kHz ==> it‘s a „kilo-SMILE“ )

Design Eastbourne, October 2005  Design of the kHz PC Board:  Simple ISA Board, fits in any PC with ISA slots;  Industry boards with 3-GHz PC cards available;  The board contains mainly  a big FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array),  Interface to the PC; plus some glue electronics;  About 150 I/O lines available;  With additional, cheap A/D converter card, the complete Graz kHz SLR station can be operated;  ISA cards are plugged into standard passive backplane

Features implemented (1) Eastbourne, October 2005  1 pps and 10 MHz applied;  Generates internal time scale, 1 µs resolution;  Internal Time Synchronized to UTC / GPS;  Allows access to actual time within few µs...  Complete Range Gate Generator  0.5 ns Resolution, < 1 ns accuracy;  Internal FIFO registers for up to 300 next gates (GPS);  Just program next RG event time, and forget it

Features implemented (2) Eastbourne, October 2005  Complete kHz Laser Control:  Generation of Laser firing triggers (10 Hz – 2 kHz);  Control of Pump Diodes for the kHz Laser (CW)  Control and/or Dephasing of Amplifier Pump Diodes: Allows simple attenuation for Calibration etc.  Handles safety inputs from Aircraft Detection etc.  Handles communication with Event Timer(s):  Graz E.T.; Riga E.T.; future ETs ?  Asynchronous Read-Out of Event Timers;

Features implemented (3) Eastbourne, October 2005  Automatic Receive/Transmit Overlap Avoidance  Automatically detects such situations;  Shifts next Laser Firing pulses accordingly;  No external checks / no intervention necessary;  Saves considerable CPU time of Real Time PC...  Serial 64-Bit Interfaces (I/O); several units:  Single BNC cables to Mount, Laser, Observers...  64-bit words transmitted / received serially;  Each bit controls mirrors, switches, FOV, DIV, etc....  Very flexible / upgradable, just add a line in programs

Status of kHz SLR board Eastbourne, October 2005  First prototype is operational:  All functions / subroutines tested, verified;  Plugged into passive backplane;  Together with a standard 3.2 GHz CPU board;  Main kHz programs will be adapted within next weeks;

Image of Graz kHz SLR Board