D. Sanz

Advanced Data Acquisition system implementation for the ITER neutron diagnostic use case using EPICS and FlexRIO technology on a PXIe platform

To aid in assessing the functional performance of ITER, Fission Chambers (FC) based on the neutron diagnostic use case deliver timestamped measurements of neutron source strength and fusion power. To demonstrate the Plant System Instrumentation & Control (I&C) required for such a system, ITER Organization (IO) has developed a neutron diagnostics use case that fully complies with guidelines presented in the Plant Control Design Handbook (PCDH). The implementation presented in this paper has been developed on the PXI Express (PXIe) platform using products from the ITER catalog of standard I&C hardware for fast controllers. Using FlexRIO technology, detector signals are acquired at 125 MS/s, while filtering, decimation, and three methods of neutron counting are performed in real-time via the onboard Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Measurement results are reported every 1 ms through Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) Channel Access (CA), with real-time timestamps derived from the ITER Timing Communication Network (TCN) based on IEEE 1588-2008. Furthermore, in accordance with ITER specifications for CODAC Core System (CCS) application development, the software responsible for the management, configuration, and monitoring of system devices has been developed in compliance with a new EPICS module called Nominal Device Support (NDS) and RIO/FlexRIO design methodology.

IRIO technology: Developing applications for advanced DAQ systems using FPGAs

IRIO tools are a set of software modules simplifying the development of advanced data acquisition systems (DAQs) using FPGA-based devices. In particular IRIO provides all the integration chain for the development of applications for EPICS middleware. The simplification arises because IRIO defines three main elements: a data acquisition and processing architecture for the FPGA, a software layer interfacing this implementation and an EPICS devices support implemented with asynDriver integrating all in EPICS. IRIO uses RIO technology from National Instruments and LabVIEW for FPGA development. The tools have been integrated and tested in ITER codac core system for fast controllers and in one prototype of the ION Source in ESS-Bilbao. IRIO software is distrusted under the GPL V2 license.

Data archiving system implementation in ITER's CODAC CORE SYSTEM

A new data archiving implementation developed by the CIEMAT-INDRA-SGENIA-UPM Consortium (in alphabetical order) has been fully integrated into ITERs CODAC CORE SYSTEM at the beginning of year 2015. This software includes components on the client and server sides that are responsible for the distribution and archiving of acquired or process-generated data, with important restrictions. On the one side, ITERs high pulse length requires that any data archiving implementation include a steady state archiving mechanism with continuous storage of the data acquired and processed throughout the experiment. On the other side, all these data must be safely archived and continuously available for read systems on the client side in a short time from their acquisition. On the side of client systems, a new software library has been developed with two main goals. The first one is to provide simple and complete data archiving functionality, while the second pursues to implement a continuous and efficient data distribution engine including different data sources as well as a diversity of potential consumer systems. From the server-based perspective, a complete solution has been implemented using the HDF5 files as the underlying data storage technology, while adapting the metadata structures and data access protocols to meet ITERs CODAC requirements.