Linux/PCI:The new ESRF beamline control system

Alejandro HOMS-PURONBLISS Group

ESRF

Talk outline

IntroductionBus couplersPrototype setup for ID31New featuresConclusions

Introduction

ESRF todayVMEbus Motorola 68000 33 MHz / OS910 MBps Ethernet

Modernization projectPCI & cPCIPentium III 1 GHz / Linux100 MBps Ethernet

Bus couplers

PCI – VME Bus coupler (Bit-3)SBS Model 620, Fiber optic link

Transfer rate: 35 Mbyte/s (DMA)

PCI – cPCI Bus Extender (MXI-3)NI PXI-PCI8330, Cooper link

Transfer rate: 84 Mbytes/s

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Instrumentation control setup

connecting PCI, cPCI&

VME busses

Industrial PC and cPCI crate

VME crates controlled by PCI & MVME Linux

General features

Scalable functionality:

Direct access to boards from SPEC (very fast)

SPEC + device servers (TACO) on the same PC

SPEC controlling remote device servers

(network traffic)

Hook facility

Buffer for storing the experiment dataRun-time configurableVME, PCI & cPCI boards includedKernel mechanism good-performance:

30 – 50 µs interrupt latency time3 µs VME single access time

Triggered by software or hardware

VME features

No limitation in the number of boards per crate Full access to VME board functionalitiesVME crates can be switched Off/On, and boards can be added/removedSame code works on Intel x86 and Motorola 68k

PCI boards Enumeration

Problem:

Plug & Play boards enumerated at boot time

Most of the boards are indistinguishable

Board added/removed enumeration changes

This also applies to VME crates!

PCI boards Enumeration

Solution:To keep track the position of the boards in the bus

TACO

Hook device server

Define a model for exporting channel

and/or board devices

Optimize local calls

Conclusions

The project supports the VME/PCI transition at the ESRFNew features will allow faster experiments and more flexible configurationsLinux kernel provides the necessary functionality and stability