EPICS Overview

EPICS OVERVIEW

EPICS consists of a set of software components and tools with which Application Developers can create a control system. The basic components are:

OPI
Operator Interface. This is a UNIX based workstation which can run various EPICS tools.
IOC
Input Output Controller. This is VME/VXI based chassis containing a Motorolla 68xxx processor, various I/O modules, and VME modules that provide access to other I/O buses such as GPIB.
LAN
Local area network. This is the communication network which allows the IOCs and OPIs to communicate. EPICS provides a software component, Channel Access, which provides network transparent communication between a Channel Access client and an arbitrary number of Channel Access servers.

Figure 1 shows the basic physical structure of a control system implemented via EPICS. The rest of this chapter gives a brief description of EPICS:

Basic Goals

A few basic design goals on which EPICS was developed.
Platforms
The Hardware and Software platforms EPICS supports.
IOC
Software EPICS supplied IOC software components.
Channel Access
EPICS software that supports network independent access to IOC databases.

OPI Tools
EPICS supplied OPI based tools.
EPICS Core
A list of the EPICS core software, i.e. the software components without which EPICS will not work.

Basic Attributes of EPICS

Tool Based:
EPICS provides a number of tools for creating a control system. This minimizes the need for custom coding and helps ensure uniform operator interfaces.
Distributed:
An arbitrary number of IOCs and OPIs can be supported. As long as the network is not saturated, no single bottle neck is present. A distributed system scales nicely. If a single IOC becomes saturated, it's functions can be spread over several IOCs. Rather than running all applications on a single host, the applications can be spread over many OPIs.
Event Driven:
The EPICS software components are all designed to be event driven to the maximum extent possible. For example rather than having to poll IOCs for changes, a channel access client can request that it be notified only when changes occur. This design leads to efficient use of resources as well as to quick response times.
High Performance:
A SPARC based workstation can handle several thousand screen updates a second with each update resulting from a channel access event. A 68040 IOC can process more than 6,000 records per second including generation of any channel access events.

Hardware - Software Platforms

OPI
Hardware
Unix based Workstation. Currently Sun4s. Hope to support HP RISC workstation in near future.
Software
UNIX
X Windows
Motif Toolkit
LAN
Hardware
Ethernet now. FDDI in the future.
Software
TCP/IP protocols via sockets.
IOC
Hardware
VME/VXI bus and crates.
Motorola 68020 and 68040
Various VME modules (ADCs, DAC, Binary I/O, etc.)
Allen Bradley Scanner (Most AB I/O modules)
GPIB devices
BITBUS devices
Software
vxWorks operating system.
Real time kernel
Extensive "Unix like" libraries

IOC Software Components

Figure 2, above, contains an overview of the IOC software components and their interactions.

Lets briefly describe the major components of the IOC and how they interact.

DATABASE

The heart of an IOC is a memory resident database together with various memory resident structures describing the contents of the database. EPICS supports a large and extensible set of record types, e.g. ai (Analog Input), ao (Analog Output), etc.

Each record type has a fixed set of fields. Some fields are common to all record types and others are specific to particular record types. Every record has a record name and every field has a field name. The first field of every database record holds the record name, which must be unique across all IOCs attached to the same TCP/IP subnet.

A number of data structures are provided so that the database can be accessed efficiently. Most software components, because they access the database via database access routines, do not need to be aware of these structures.

Database Access

With the exception of record and device support, all access to the database is via the channel or database access routines. See Chapter for details.

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Database Scanning

Database scanning is the mechanism for deciding when to process a record. Four types of scanning are possible: Periodic, Event, I/O Event, and Passive.

Record Support, Device Support, and Device Drivers

In order to remove record specific knowledge from database access, each record type has an associated record support module. Similarly, in order to remove device specific knowledge from record support, each record type can have a set of device support modules. If the method of accessing hardware is complicated, a device driver can be provided to shield the device support modules. Many record types, in particular all types not associated with hardware, do not have device support or drivers.

The IOC software is designed so that the database access layer knows nothing about the record support layer other than how to call it. The record support layer in turn knows nothing about it's device support layer other than how to call it. Similarly the only thing a device support layer knows about it's associated driver is how to call it. This design allows a particular installation and even a particular IOC within an installation to choose the set of record types, device types, and drivers it wishes to use. The remainder of the IOC system software is unaffected.

Because an Application Developer can develop his own record support, device support, and device drivers. Every record support module must provide a record processing routine. It is this routine that is called by the database scanners. Record processing consists of some combination of the following functions (particular records types may not need all functions):

Channel Access

Channel access is discussed in the next section.

Database Monitors

The routines described in this section provide a callback mechanism for database value changes. This allows the caller to be notified when database values change without constantly polling the database. A mask can be set to specify value changes, alarm state changes, and/or archive changes.

At the present time only channel access uses database monitors. No other software should use the database monitors. Because they are of interest only to channel access, the monitor routines will not be described.

Channel Access

Channel access provides network transparent access to IOC databases. It is based on a client server model. Each IOC provides a channel access server which is willing to establish communication with an arbitrary number of clients. Channel access client services are available on both OPIs and IOCs. A client can communicate with an arbitrary number of servers.

Client Services

The basic channel access client services are:

It should be noted that channel access does not provide access to database records as records. This is a deliberate design decision. This allows new record types to be added without impacting any software that accesses the database via channel access. A channel access client can communicate with multiple IOCs having differing sets of record types.

Search Server

Channel access provides a server which waits for channel access search messages. These are generated when a channel access client (for example when an Operator Interface task starts) searches for the IOCs containing process variables the client uses. This server accepts all search messages, checks if any of the process variables are located in this IOC, and, if any are found, replies to the sender.

Connection Request Server

For each IOC containing process variables it uses, the channel access client issues connection requests. The connection request server accepts the request and establishes a connection to the client. Each such connection is managed by a separate task (actually two tasks). Ca_get and ca_put requests map to dbGetField and dbPutField database access requests. Ca_add_event requests result in database monitors being established. Database access and/or record support routines trigger the monitors via a call to db_post_event.

Connection Management

Channel access provides a connection management service. When a channel access server fails (e.g. it's IOC crashes) the client is notified. and when a client fails (e.g. it's task crashes) the server is notified. When a client fails, the server breaks the connection. When a server crashes, the client automatically re-establishes communication when the server restarts.

OPI Tools

EPICS provides a number of OPI based tools. These can be divided into two groups based on whether or not they use channel access. Channel access tools are real time tools, i.e. they are used to monitor and control IOCs.

Channel Access Tools

Other OPI Tools

EPICS Core Software

EPICS consists of a set of core software and a set of optional components. The core software, i.e. the components of EPICS without which EPICS would not function, are: All other software components are optional. Of course any application developer would be crazy to ignore tools such as MEDM (or EDD/DM). Likewise an application developer would not start from scratch developing record and device support. Most OPI tools do not, however, have to be used. Likewise any given record support module, device support module, or driver could be deleted from a particular IOC and EPICS will still function.