EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH

BERN/PS 88-04 [CO] 27.1.1988

Domains : CONTROLS Catégorie: REF-MAN Status : FINAL

CONTRIBUTION TO THE ANNUAL REPORT 1987

CONTROLS GROUP

F. Perriollat

Genéve, Suisse

Controls activities during 1987 have been dominated by the commissioning of the LEP pre-injector facility and the new antiproton source [AC complex].

The long shutdown was used to complete the interfacing of the ACOL equipment for the PS controls. This was done by adding one CAMAC Serial Loop to the AA Front-End ND-iUOCX computer. This loop was equipped with fourteen well filled CAMAC crates to connect the specific interface to the controls. Some facilities were also connected to the AA machine. This extension was mainly in the domain of instrumentation. The requested basic application software modules providing uniform access to the equipment. were produced and tested. This covers both new modules and modification and extension of the already existing ones. These additions of software facilities to the AA Front-End Computer induced a shortage in virtual memory resource for the Nodal application programs. A drastic modification of the Real-time Nodal program environment was quickly implemented to bypass this shortage of resources by using the special instruction set of the ND-iDDCX computer. All this work allowed user applications programs, mainly supplied by the AA team and the Operation crew, to be ready in time for the successful running-in of the new antiproton source complex. Un-line and off-line modelling facilities have also been extensively used in the commissioning.

The LPI complex started running early in 1987, and the time was used to complete the running-in to transfer the positron beam to the SPS according to design parameters. For the controls it was mainly installation and checkout of the final version of the basic software facilities, using the complete control chain from the operation console to the CAMAC equipment. The installation and debugging of the Pulse-to-Pulse Modulation [PPM] for the e+e- running mode of the LPI complex were done for the main equipment to completely overcome the problems of timing, sequencing and synchronisation. A main software activity started at the end of the year 1987. to increase the overall reliability of the LPI controls in order to provide the necessary beams to SP5 and LEP next year.

The successful start-up of the ISOLDE III separator showed the reliability of its controls system which was built by the SC/ISDLDE staff in close collaboration with the PS Controls group.

The daily exploitation activities, necessary to meet the ever-changing physics programme, the machine studies and the large variety of particles accelerated, request more and more effort per person due to the increase of machines and equipment in the division, and due to the shortage of staff. Despite the lack of resources, the down-time of the particle beams attributable to the controls system has been kept around 11 as for the previous years.

Concerning the controls hardware domain, the installation of the new machine equipment, the normal maintenance and developments were slowed down because of lack of funding for both the project and exploitation. A new ”timing distributor“ facility was built and put into operation for LPI. It is built in a modular way, therefore it is now easier to exchange faulty devices. The bypass function is completely computer controlled. The development of a timing surveillance CAMAC module was started. This module can handle all the particularities of the timing in PPM. The complete specification was done and construction of the prototype started. This module will allow automatic survey of timing events and fault finding. It is particularly requested for the tricky process of the antiproton beam transfer. The new autonomous function generator [CFAD], built in VME standard for sub-micro-second resolution and PPM capability was prototyped with its complete communication and running software. This new GFAD will first be used in 1988 for the PS RP system. Studies on communications via Ethernet for the future distribution of timing events and access to local processors has started but on a very low scale due to lack of funding.

In addition to the production of specific modules for the LPI and AC machines. a number of developments and installations took place.

The replacement of the PLS [program line sequencer] FEC by a ND-iOOCX computer was the occasion to move to the version J of the III. This installation was also done on the AA and BENCH FECs. The running-in of the second ND-SDO computer [ND-570 PRDEVZ] was used to convert the programming development and modelling environment to the newest operating system [Sintran K]. This version of the ND Operation System is significantly different in its architecture from the previous version. Therefore a complete rewriting of the TITN communication package was needed. With the K version of Sintran III, the newest user environment from ND was installed which provides more efficiency for programming development and office automation. together with powerful communications with the PS Division’s Notis facilities. This new version is a step forward to provide the expected new communication facilities.

The lack of resources for Nodal programs, which became apparent during installation of the AC software modules. was the trigger for developments on the Nodal environment. This environment gives much more working space by using the two PIT facilities of the ND-lUD. This will allow larger programs to be developed with less constraints. The new version will be installed in all FECs during the 1988 shutdown. An access to the real-time networking facilities was also introduced to the background Nodal environment on the ND-SOD computer. This provides more uniform and secure access to the cn—line controls from the development environment.

For the SMACC project [the Motorola 68k processor in CAMAC], developments were done in the field of communication by implementation of the datagram facility [a transport facility running on TITN network and serial CAMAC link] and AppleTalk [the Macintosh network]. With these transport facilities a uniform Remote Procedure Call [RFC] to the Equipment Modules will allow uniform access from the PEG and Macintosh computers. The new Input/Output package [PRMIOS] was ported to the SMACC, giving full concurrent I/U access to various tasks. The run time library for the recommended programming languages [C and Pascal] is under production including the basic I/U facilities. The programming environment for the SMACC was transfered to the PRIAM facility. the CERN—wide microprocessor development environment under UNIX.

Concerning the structure of application programs, the year 1987 showed the first complete implementation in the real controls of the new structure. [NAPS]. It was done both for LPI and on nearly all of the new ACOL equipment. This first complete test showed the correct approach in this structure. It also showed the lack of simple use for a casual programmer. A derived version simpler to use was therefore set up after this initial test. A complete tools set for development and first tests of software modules were developed on PRIAM. All previous SMACC applications were transferred from PEDEV to this UNIX programming environment. Utility programs to access and display the current state of equipment were produced. All the developments to use the ORACLE data base on the DD IBM complex were done. With this facility the primary and unique source of static data for the control system will be well manageable. Data capture and updating are done interactively using an object-oriented approach which gives efficiency of the class and inheritance together with good structures. Provisions for future use of these data by the expert system were included for helping operators in fault-finding and for the future presentation manager of the next generation of consoles. The DB applications for automatic code generation for the target system [SMACC] were started. The communications facilities between IBM VM/CMS, PRIAM and ND SIII were developed to give a transparent access to the DB for the programmer using the PRIAM software development environment. These required significant modifications of the CERNET package for ND computers.

The pilot project for an expert system to diagnose problems in the PS controls system reached the advanced prototype phase. The Symbolics 3840 computer with the KEE 3.0 was installed. The development covers the domain of [ii the knowledge representation for classification hierarchy of modules according to the structure of the software and hardware system, [ii] the simulation of information flow for test point comparison, [iii] the preliminary prototype of the graphic , [iv] the automatic knowledge base creation from flat files as a first step towards creation from ORACLE DB, [v] the start of designing and testing forward chaining rules. Studies and contacts started for a possible collaboration within an Esprit-2 project, the European Communities strategic program for research and development in information technology.

For the Macintosh local access facility project, development took place mainly in order to use the Macintosh in local small networks. Appletalk was implemented in the SMACC under EMS 88k, and the RFC from Macintosh to SMACC equipment modules. A new faster CAMAC driver was developed with the library of CAMAC Escne interface routines. The development of the software package for the IDI protocol allows the Macintosh to be used as the local computer of intelligent devices.

Several improvements in the equipment modules and PPM [in the old version] were done in order to increase reliability, to facilitate maintenance and to increase homogeneity of behaviour of the equipment. A plan to increase reliability of instrumentation was started and an audit of the overall timing and synchronisation of the PS complex began, to define future evolution of these complex systems.

Work has started to replace the old Linac computer by new PDP 11/73, completely maintained by DEC. The replacement of the non-standard Mnet network by the standard Ethernet running DECnet is planned. The development software environment for PDP 11 is being ported from a dedicated local old PDP 11 computer to the DD central VAX computer. Cooperation with DB Division has started to set up the cross software development environment for the RSX 11 target systems.

The Notis environment for text processing and office automation has been extended to all PS secretariats. Together with the installation of the PS Ethernet backbone and SNA link to the IBM. this has provided a uniform service for file transfer, remote login to the central VM/CMS and to the other Notis systems at CERN, and in the future for electronic mail.

The Europhysics Conference on Control Systems for Experimental Physics, sponsored jointly by the European Physical Society and BERN, was organised by the PS Controls Group with very efficient help of the PS secretariat. It was held at Villars—sur-Dllon from 28 September to 2 0ctober.170 controls experts from all continents participated and around 100 technical contributions were presented. This conference emphasised how much today the control systems have come to be an indispensible factor with a steadily growing weight in the safe running of the physics laboratories and for the excellence of their research. The conference has also shown that the same or similar problems appear in most laboratories independent of the type of accelerator. In several of the very animated workshops it has been made plausible that close to common solutions may be feasible between different physics installations. using common protocols and similar software skeletons. Several participants have voiced an interest in a collaboration between the laboratories in this field.

In the frame of the structures set up by management for better horizontal coordination in several technical disciplines, three persons of the Controls Group have spent close to full time, and several others part time, for establishing a systematic exchange of controls experience between the three accelerator divisions. In addition to chairing the Technical Board for Controls and Electronics for Accelerators, these group members have engineered a fair measure of concensus and have made significant steps toward proposals for common [CERN-wide] solutions in the field of controls protocols and to some extent also for applications software skeletons.

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