Integrating Field Buses at the Application Level: C Interface and LabView Integration

The controls group of the SPS and LEP accelerators at CERN, Geneva, uses many different fieldbuses into the controls infrastucture, such as 1553, BITBUS, GPIB, RS232, JBUS, etc. A software package (SL-EQUIP) has been developped to give end users a standardized application program interface (API) to access any equipment connected to any fieldbus. This interface has now been integrated to LabView. We can offer a powerful graphical package, running on HP-UX workstations which treats data from heterogeneous equipment using the great flexibility of LabView. This paper will present SL-EQUIP and LabView, and will then describe some applications using these tools

The new controls infrastructure for the SPS

A completely new control infrastructure has been installed in the SPS machine and experimental areas, replacing the old control system based on NORD computers that dated back to the 1970s. The new system uses Unix workstations and X terminals to replace the old console computers, and PC and VME chassis running LynxOS to replace the low-level interface computers. This paper will present the old equipment access, then describe the transitional phase when the two systems were run in parallel followed by the final complete transition to the new system and the removal of the NORD computers. A great effort was made to recreate the old programming environment in the new system in order to preserve the enormous investment in application programs. The equipment access and the NORD console simulator are two examples of this effort. Finally the paper will present the results of the first few months of operation of the SPS and its experimental areas with this new control infrastructure

The new generation of PowerPC VMEbus front end computers for the CERN SPS and LEP accelerators system

The CERN SPS and LEP PowerPC project is aimed at introducing a new generation of PowerPC VMEbus processor modules running the LynxOS real-time operating system. This new generation of front end computers using the state-of-the-art microprocessor technology will first replace the obsolete XENIX PC based systems (about 140 installations) successfully used since 1988 to control the LEP accelerator. The major issues addressed in the scope of this large scale project are the technical specification for the new PowerPC technology, the re-engineering aspects, the interfaces with other CERN wide projects, and the set up of a development environment. This project offers also support for other major SPS and LEP projects interested in the PowerPC microprocessor technology

Management of Critical Machine Settings for Accelerators at CERN

In high energy and high intensity accelerators as the LHC, the energy stored in the beams is orders of magnitude above the damage level of accelerator components like magnets. Uncontrolled release of this energy can lead to serious damage of equipment and long machine downtimes. In order to cope with these potential risks Protection Systems were developed at CERN including two software systems: MCS (Management of Critical Settings) and RBAC (Role Based Access Control). RBAC provides an authentication and authorization facility for access to the critical parts of the control system. A second layer of security is provided by MCS which ensures that critical parameters are coherent within the software and hardware components and can only be changed by an authorized person. The MCS system is aimed at the most critical parameters in either potentially dangerous equipment or protection devices (e.g. Beam Loss Monitors). It is complementary to the RBAC infrastructure. Both systems are fully integrated in the control system for the LHC and SPS and were successfully commissioned already before first beam in the LHC. This paper will describe the MCS architecture, current status and its operational deployment in the LHC

Diagnostic and Monitoring CERN Accelerator Controls Infrastructure : The DIAMON Project First Deployment in Operation

The CERN accelerator controls infrastructure spans over several machines and several thousands of devices are used to collect and transmit piece of control data. Each of these remote devices might fail and therefore prevent correct operation. A complete diagnostic and monitoring infrastructure has been developed in order to provide Operation crews with complete and easy to use graphical interface presenting the state of the controls system. Simple agents running in each surveyed item periodically report monitoring information to a central server. Graphical JAVA clients in the operation centers subscribe to this monitoring data and display a view of the current state of the machines. Mouse actions from these clients allows for diagnostic commands to be sent to the agent to get additional details or to repair a faulty situation. This presentation will describe the overall architecture of DIAMON, present the different agents running in the controls system and a few views of the graphical clients. The outcome of the first months in operation of the DIAMON tools will also be presented. Finally, the future plans will be exposed

Upgrading the SPS Operational Software for the LHC Era: The SPS-2001 Software Project

In December 1996, it was decided to set up a project to re-engineer the CERN SPS Accelerator application software to improve the operational efficiency and to cover the specific needs of the SPS as LHC injector. The mandate of this project is to provide a first working version of the software in June 2001 and a final version in July 2003. It will make use of the emerging CERN accelerator control infrastructure amongst which the new Java Application Programming Interface (this conference). This presentation reviews the reasons why the project was launched, its scope and objectives, the project planning and the methods used to run the analysis. The first results of the analysis phase and their implications for the application software, for the control infrastructure and for the accelerator equipment software services will be presented

A Directory Service for the CERN PS/SL Java Programming Interface

The CERN PS and SL accelerator control groups developed a common application programming interface (API) in Java [1]. Part of this API is a directory service that provides information about the underlying hardware and software. With this information it is possible to write generic programs that do general actions on lists of devices without hard coding of device names. And, starting from a device name, full details about related devices, the device itself and its class and properties, can be obtained, including the meaning of bits and bitpatterns in status words. The interface definition is independent of any implementation but a reference implementation is provided using Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) against a set of tables in a relational database. Data from very different systems can be brought together and presented in a uniform way to the user. The full potential of the directory service is reached when it is used in software components (Java Beans)

Re-Engineering of the CERN Accelerators and Services Control System based on VMEbus and PowerPC Technology

A new generation of PowerPC VMEbus front-end computers is being introduced in the CERN accelerators and services control system infrastructure. This new technology is aimed at replacing existing PC based front-end computers and at offering a high performance microprocessor platform for present and future engineering developments for the LHC era. This paper describes the re-engineering strategy and the core architecture of the new systems. Special performance issues are also addressed in this paper