EPICS Input/Output Controller (IOC) application developer`s guide. APS Release 3.12

This document describes the core software that resides in an Input/Output Controller (IOC), one of the major components of EPICS. 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 a VME/VXI based chassis containing a Motorola 68xxx processor, various I/O modules, and VME modules that provide access to other I/O buses such as GPIB, (LAN), Local Area Network; and 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

Experimental physics and industrial control system (EPICS) input/output controller (IOC) application developer`s guide

This document describes the core software that resides in an Input/Output Controller (IOC), one of the major components of EPICS. The plan of the book is: EPICS overview, IOC test facilities, general purpose features, database locking - scanning - and processing, static database access, runtime database access, database scanning, record and device support, device support library, IOC database configuration, IOC initialization, and database structures. Other than the first chapter this document describes only core IOC software. Thus it does not describe other EPICS tools such as the sequencer. It also does not describe Channel Access, a major IOC component

EPICS Input Output Controller (IOC) Record Reference Manual

This manual describes all supported EPICS record types. The first chapter gives introduction and describes the field summary table. The second chapter describes the fields in database common, i.e. the fields that are present in every record type. The third chapter describes the input and output field that are common to many record types and have the same usage wherever they are used. Following the third chapter is a separate chapter for each record type containing a description of all the fields for that record type except those in database common

Links in a distributed database: Theory and implementation

This document addresses the problem of extending database links across Input/Output Controller (IOC) boundaries. It lays a foundation by reviewing the current system and proposing an implementation specification designed to guide all work in this area. The document also describes an implementation that is less ambitious than our formally stated proposal, one that does not extend the reach of all database links across IOC boundaries. Specifically, it introduces an implementation of input and output links and comments on that overall implementation. We include a set of manual pages describing each of the new functions the implementation provides

Neutral particle beam distributed data acquisition system

A distributed data acquisition system has been designed to support experiments at the Argonne Neutral Particle Beam Accelerator. The system uses a host VAXstation II/GPX computer acting as an experimenter's station linked via Ethernet with multiple MicroVAX IIs and rtVAXs dedicated to acquiring data and controlling hardware at remote sites. This paper describes the hardware design of the system, the applications support software on the host and target computers, and the real-time performance

EPICS architecture

The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) was conceived to provide control and data acquisition for the experimental physics community. Because the capabilities required by the experimental physics community for control were not available through industry, we began the design and implementation of EPICS. It is distributed process control system built on a software communication bus. The functional subsystems, which provide data acquisition, supervisory control, closed loop control, archiving, and alarm management, greatly reduce the need for programming. Sequential control is provided through a sequential control language, allowing the implementer to express state diagrams easily. Data analysis of the archived data is provided through an interactive tool. The timing system provides distributed synchronization for control and time stamped data for data correlation across nodes in the network. The system is scalable from a single test station with a low channel count to a large distributed network with thousands of channels. The functions provided to the physics applications have proven helpful to the experiments while greatly reducing the time to deliver controls