RIO EPICS device support application case study on an ion source control system (ISHP)

TL;DR

This paper presents a case study on deploying EPICS device support for RIO FPGA devices in an ion source control system, demonstrating a scalable, maintainable, and efficient control architecture upgrade.

Contribution

It introduces a methodology for integrating RIO FPGA devices with EPICS using NIRIO-EDS, enabling fast deployment and system scalability in a scientific control environment.

Findings

Successful implementation of NIRIO-EDS for RIO devices in ISHP

Enhanced system maintainability and scalability

Reduced deployment time for control system upgrades

Abstract

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a software tool that during last years has become relevant as a main framework to deploy distributed control systems in large scientific environments. At the moment, ESS Bilbao uses this middleware to perform the control of their Ion Source Hydrogen Positive (ISHP) project. The implementation of the control system was based on: PXI Real Time controllers using the LabVIEW-RT and LabVIEW-EPICS tools; and RIO devices based on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology. Intended to provide a full compliant EPICS IOCs for RIO devices and to avoid additional efforts on the system maintainability, a migration of the current system to a derivative Red Hat Linux (CentOS) environment has been conducted. This paper presents a real application case study for using the NIRIO EPICS device support (NIRIO-EDS) to give support to the ISHP. Although RIO FPGA configurations are particular solutions for ISHP performance, the NIRIO-EDS has permitted the control and monitoring of devices by applying a well-defined design methodology into the previous FPGA configuration for RIO/FlexRIO devices. This methodology has permitted a fast and easy deployment for the new robust, scalable and maintainable software to support RIO devices into the ISHP control architecture.