S. Esquembri

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.

Image acquisition and GPU processing application using IRIO technology and FlexRIO devices

The large amount of data generated by image diagnostics used in big physics experiments requires an efficient use of hardware technologies in real time data acquisition and processing applications. In order to get the best performance of the hardware, it is necessary to provide the hardware and software tools that enable a fast and easy way to deployment these kind of solutions. IRIO technology allows an easy development of advanced data acquisition applications and their integration in EPICS using National Instruments Reconfigurable Input/Output (RIO) FPGA-based cards. Using IRIO software tools, it is possible to minimize the development time to build specific application for different hardware configurations. IRIO uses the open source version of NI-RIO Linux device driver supporting direct DMA access from FlexRIO devices to NVIDIA GPUs. For the development of image processing applications the hardware platform selected has been implemented using a FlexRIO device with a cameralink adapter module and a NVIDIA Kepler architecture GPU. With the help of IRIO tools the user have to focus the development exclusively in the implementation of the FPGA application for the FlexRIO device using LabVIEW/FPGA and the GPU algorithm using NVIDIA CUDA tools. Additionally IRIO provides the EPICS integration for these applications using the software model developed by ITER and Cosylab that simplifies the development of EPICS device support by mean of Nominal Device Support approach. This is a set of libraries with C++ classes simplifying the development of these device supports. To demonstrate the full development cycle an algorithm for image compression based on JPEG standard has been evaluated and tested using a hardware configuration with the same elements defined in the ITER fast controllers hardware catalog. This image standard allows high compression ratios and can include additional metadata information related to the image. These software tools has been tested in ITER CCS (Codac Core System).

Analog data acquisition and processing FPGA-based solutions integrated in areaDetector using FlexRIO technology

Analog data acquisition used in diagnostics and control of large physics experiments require high sampling rates and real-time functionalities. Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices allow efficient implementation of such solutions. Currently, large scientific facilities are using middleware platforms to simplify systems integration. EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) is one of the most extended middleware for this purpose. Heterogeneous hardware integration in these middleware is a complex task, and different approaches attempt to standardize. One of these approaches is areaDetector. An open source module for EPICS that is mainly used for image acquisition. areaDetector simplifies integration of heterogeneous image systems, has also been used with some analog signals like quadEM. This paper presents the integration of an acquisition and processing solution in a PXIe platform using FlexRIO technology via a hardware model that solves acquisition and processing in a FPGA and a software model implemented in C++ with the IRIO library (open source solution for RIO devices in the Linux environment) to get to EPICS through areaDetector with analog data.