Abstracts

THBT005 (Talk)

An EPICS to TINE Translator

Z. Kakucs, P. Duval, M. Clausen (DESY)

Accelerator control at DESY has in the past been hampered by the 'many-control-systems' syndrome, where different subsystems were controlled by completely different means offering no possibility of intercommunication. This was particularly true in HERA during the commissioning phase. Today, practically all subsystems of HERA are controlled by TINE [1]. Important exceptions include the Proton Vacuum (DOOCS [2]), cryogenics control (D3), and the super-conducting electron RF cavities and the power and cooling subsystems, the latter two of which are controlled by EPICS IOCs. A step toward integrating the EPICS IOCs into the HERA mainstream has been taken in that an EPICS to TINE translator process has been written, which runs directly on the EPICS IOC and offers a TINE view of the hardware control to the rest of the control system. An EPICS IOC can then be controlled via channel access as before, and in addition via TINE protocol. The server module of the translator resides in each one of the system controllers along with that controller^Rs portion of the distributed EPICS staff and database. This in effect renders the EPICS IOC into a bi-lingual server, and highlights the principal difference between a 'translator' and a 'gateway'. The EPICS PV names registered as TINE devices, the fields of the records are registered as TINE properties. The server is able to send (receive) any value to (from) any client TINE application, in any of the TINE modes of data acquisition. The multiple instances of the server in a control system respond to a request for data by searching for the registered device. If a server has the requested data in the local database, it responds to the request and sends the data to the client. This allows any of an arbitrary number of data-using clients to receive data from any of an arbitrary number of data-supplying servers without the client needing to know the location or other attributes of the data. The result is an easily scaleable translator system. Details of this translator are presented in this paper.

[1] Philip Duval, 'The TINE Control System Protocol: Status Report,' Proceedings PCaPAC 2000, 2000.

[2] Kay Rehlich, 'Experience with an object oriented control system at DESY' Proceedings PCaPAC^R99, 1999.

eCONF C011127    ePROCEEDINGS COMMITTEES PARTICIPANTS    PROGRAM SUMMARY ICALEPCS 2001  eCONF
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