Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

John Quintana <[email protected]> · Tue, 26 Jun 2001 20:28:36 -0500 (CDT)

Here at DND, we long ago gave up running EPICS for beamline control
on our sector. The reasons were many and we in general thought it was the
best choice at the time.  As times change, we decided to give it
another look.  However, now, we have an installed based of about 20 Intel
Linux machines that we use and we are very comfortable with Linux.

With the latest alpha release 3.13a2 the ioccore libraries now run on
Linux when built as a host.  I have been playing with adding some real
device support for Intelish Linux systems in order to get an idea of
how hard this would be etc... etc...  I currently have some "preliminary"
support for two CyberResearch Boards.  The CIO-DAS16Jr/16 Analog Input
Board and the CYDAC 02HR 16 Bit Analog Output Board (i.e. I have working
ai and ao devices).  While these are
both ISA Boards, PCI boards should pretty much follow the same logic
especially since all of the PCI info can be obtained from the OS through
/proc/pci.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else was interested and or working
on this approach or if we were a "lone wolf".   It would seem to me
that the prospects of a true Linux IOC would really lower the barrier
for EPICS since VxWorks isn't needed for the nondemanding applications,
the basic "Crate and Controller" can be a barebones PC box up to a high
end CompactPCI system.  In the near future [depending on workload], I
plan on working in some Binary Input and Binary Output Boards.  I would
also like to get the drivers for the Koyo PLC Direct systems and see if I
can't get these working using Linux serial ports. Discussion can take
place here or offline depending on what is most appropriate.

My only problem now is that I need to learn some of the EPICS applications
so that I can try and come up with some performance numbers.  Are there
any EPICS courses being taught in the near future?

Cheers,

- John

-- 
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John Quintana                       Phone:630-252-0221
Northwestern University             FAX: 630-252-0226
DND-CAT                             email: [email protected]
APS/ANL Building 432/A008
9700 South Cass Avenue
Argonne, IL 60439

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System