Diagnostic Application for Development of Custom ATCA Carrier Board for LLRF

The Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) standard describes a powerful and efficient platform. With multiple integrated solutions like redundancies and intelligent control mechanisms this technology is characterized with reliability estimated at the level of 99.99999 percent. These features make the standard perfect for use in projects like the Free Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) and the X-ray Free Electron Laser (X-FEL) in order to help them meet the requirements of high availability and reliability. The ATCA standard incorporates advanced control systems defined in the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specification as one of the key elements. The entire ATCA implementation retains its functionality as long as the IPMI remains operational. The complexity level of the application increases, which results in preparing it to run and debugging being more difficult to perform. At the same time, only scrupulous elimination of any kind of possible deficiencies can enable the ATCA implementation to offer the desired level of reliability. Thus, diagnostics become crucial, which creates a need for additional tools performing these tasks during the preparations of both hardware and software for the ATCA application. The paper presents application aiding in development of the prototype Carrier Board by enabling the user of external PC station to perform diagnostic and control activities over the Board. It helps in examining all its components at the stage of running the Board, as well as in further operation analysis

Algorithm for Longitudinal Profile Diagnostics of the Electron Beam for the FLASH Linear Accelerator in Hamburg

The lasing process taking place in a free electron laser based on the Self-Amplification Spontaneous Emission (SASE) is generated by high-brightness electron beams passing through an undulator system. There exist strict quality requirements that must be met by the electron bunches constituting the beam in order for the SASE phenomena to appear. This paper describes selected diagnostic installations supervising the longitudinal electron bunch profile parameters for the electron beams in the Free Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) and focuses on software delivered for processing of the acquired diagnostic data

Design of TDS-based Multi-screen Electron Beam Diagnostics for the European XFEL

Dedicated longitudinal electron beam diagnostics is essential for successful operation of modern free-electron lasers. Demand for diagnostic data includes the longitudinal bunch profile, bunch length and slice emittance of the electron bunches. Experimental setups based on transverse deflecting structures (TDS) are excellent candidates for this purpose. At the Free-Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH), such a longitudinal bunch profile monitor utilizing a TDS, a fast kicker magnet and an off-axis imaging screen, has been put into operation. It enables the measurement of a single bunch out of a bunch train without affecting the remaining bunches. At the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) multiscreen stations in combination with TDS are planned to be installed. In order to allow for flexible measurements of longitudinal bunch profile and slice emittance, a configurable timing and trigger distribution to the fast kicker magnets and screen stations is required. In this paper, we discuss various operation patterns and the corresponding realization based on MTCA.4 technology

Automated generation of FRU devices inventory records for xTCA devices

The Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) and Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture (μTCA) standards, intended for high-performance applications, offer an array of features that are compelling from the industry use perspective, like high reliability (99,999%) or hot-swap support. The standards incorporate the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) for the purpose o advanced diagnostics and operation control. This standard imposes support for non-volatile Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) information for specific components of an ATCA/μTCA-based system, which would typically include description of a given component. The Electronic Keying (EK) mechanism is capable of using this information for ensuring more reliable cooperation of the components. The FRU Information for the ATCA/μTCA implementation elements may be of sophisticated structure. This paper focuses on a software tool facilitating the process of assembling this information, the goal of which is to make it more effective and less error-prone

Application for supervision and management of ATCA-based systems

The Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) standard describes a powerful, high performance platform. Its implementation has been considered among candidates for a base of the control system of the X-ray Free Electron Laser (X-FEL), which is being built at Deutsches Electronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany. The Low Level Radio Frequency (LLRF) control system is designed as a set of ATCA Carrier Boards. Each Carrier Board hosts an Intelligent Platform Management Controller (IPMC), which is developed in compliance with the PICMG specifications. IPMC is responsible for management and monitoring of components installed on Carrier Boards and pluggable Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) modules. The ATCA Shelf Manager is the main control unit of a single ATCA shelf, responsible for power management, fan modules and Carrier Boards installed in ATCA shelf. It provides a set of control and diagnostic capabilities regarding the shelf and its sub-modules. These capabilities are available for operators and can be used by higher level applications. This publication presents a software component intended to support management and supervision of the ATCA shelf and its sub-modules, including Carrier Boards with AMC modules. The application provides enhanced mechanisms of control and allows to acquire detailed information regarding status and parameters of crucial devices (e.g. power supply voltages, temperatures, presence of reference clocks). The information supplied from Shelf Manager combined with graphical user interface of the application provides visual representation of selected system components and contributes towards efficient control and supervision of Carrier Boards and entire ATCA-based platform

Diagnostic application for development of custom ATCA carrier board for LLRF

The Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) standard describes a powerful and efficient platform. With multiple integrated solutions like redundancies and intelligent control mechanisms this technology is characterized with reliability estimated at the level of 99.99999 percent. These features make the standard perfect for use in projects like the Free Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) and the X-ray Free Electron Laser (X-FEL) in order to help them meet the requirements of high availability and reliability. The ATCA standard incorporates advanced control systems defined in the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specification as one of the key elements. The entire ATCA implementation retains its functionality as long as the IPMI remains operational. The complexity level of the application increases, which results in preparing it to run and debugging being more difficult to perform. At the same time, only scrupulous elimination of any kind of possible deficiencies can enable the ATCA implementation to offer the desired level of reliability. Thus, diagnostics become crucial, which creates a need for additional tools performing these tasks during the preparations of both hardware and software for the ATCA application. The paper presents application aiding in development of the prototype Carrier Board by enabling the user of external PC station to perform diagnostic and control activities over the Board. It helps in examining all its components at the stage of running the Board, as well as in further operation analysis

Application for Management and Monitoring of xTCA Hardware

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Image Acquisition and Visualisation in DOOCS and EPICS Environments

The High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments, due to their large scale, required performance and precision, have to be controlled by complex, distributed control systems. The systems are responsible for processing thousands of signals from various sensors of different types. Very often, one of the data sources applied in such systems are visible light/infrared cameras or other imaging sensors, which provide substantial information about studied phenomena. High data throughput for camera systems require dedicated mechanisms for data collecting and processing. Moreover, the images from cameras should be also available to system operator. It needs the support from both operator panels interface and control application which should provide data in the dedicated format. The paper presents two different approaches to image distribution, processing and visualisation applied in distributed control systems. Discussed is the issue of support for cameras and image data implemented in the Distributed Object Oriented Control System (DOOCS) and an example control system designed to the needs of image acquisition system on the base of the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) environment

FIRST REALIZATION AND PERFORMANCE STUDY OF A SINGLE-SHOT LONGITUDINAL BUNCH PROFILE MONITOR UTILIZING A TRANSVERSE DEFLECTING STRUCTURE

Abstract For the control and optimization of electron beam parameters at modern free-electron lasers (FEL), transverse deflecting structures (TDS) in combination with imaging screens have been widely used as robust longitudinal diagnostics with single-shot capability, high resolution and large dynamic range. At the free electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH), a longitudinal bunch profile monitor utilizing a TDS has been realized. In combined use with a fast kicker magnet and an off-axis imaging screen, selection and measurement of a single bunch out of the bunch train with bunch spacing down to 1 µs can be achieved without affecting the remaining bunches which continue to generate FEL radiation during user operation. Technical obstacles have been overcome such as suppression of coherent transition radiation from the imaging screen, the continuous image acquisition and processing with the bunch train repetition rate of 10 Hz. The monitor, which provides the longitudinal bunch profile and length, has been used routinely at FLASH. In this paper, we present the setup and operation of the longitudinal bunch profile monitor as well as its performance during user operation

Drivers and Software for MicroTCA.4

The MicroTCA.4 crate standard provides a powerful electronic platform for digital and analogue signal processing. Besides excellent hardware modularity, it is the software reliability and flexibility as well as the easy integration into existing software infrastructures that will drive the widespread adoption of the new standard. The DESY MicroTCA.4 User Tool Kit (MTCA4U) comprises three main components: A Linux device driver, a C++ API for accessing the MicroTCA.4 devices and a control system interface layer. The main focus of the tool kit is flexibility to enable fast development. The universal, expandable PCI Express driver and a register mapping library allow out of the box operation of all MicroTCA.4 devices which are running firmware developed with the DESY board support package. The tool kit has recently been extended with features like command line tools and language bindings to Python and Matlab