Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Mark Rivers <[email protected]> · Thu, 1 Mar 2018 17:50:28 +0000

We want to display 2 mega-pixel RGB images at 30 Hz = 180 MB/s.  Is SQL going to handle that efficiently?

Mark

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
> Of [email protected]
> Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2018 11:46 AM
> To: Pete Jemian <[email protected]>
> Cc: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Idea for new Display Manager
> 
> Well anyone interested in building a display manager right now has to know
> about Epics and use Epics libraries - which is somewhat specialized, and
> also how to program - also specialized.  If there was a SQL database
> intermediary, then they only have to know how to interact with a SQL
> database (part of a typical software curriculum).  It segregates the
> data/control from how said data is displayed or interacted with.
> 
> If the system used in a display manager changes, becomes outdated (like
> Motif), no matter - the SQL database standards are the same.
> 
> As you say, "One can already use any language, any system, to control and
> display data..." which is true, today - though I have trouble compiling
> edm for Ubuntu 64.  With this method though, a rather intensive effort
> admittedly, a display manager would be compatible with languages of
> tomorrow too, ones not even invented yet.  As long as they are SQL
> database compatible, which they will be, or they won't take off as a
> language.
> 
> Cheers
> James Richard Larsson
> 
> 
> > Now I'm confused.
> >
> > On 3/1/2018 10:46 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> >> All the displays managers for Epics *look* far behind what is available
> >> from commercial systems, say Schneider or Rockwell.  Which are
> >> themselves
> >> far behind what programmers are doing today with, a modern operating
> >> system or video games (also control interfaces).  And that's what we're
> >> talking about right, at least in part, how it looks, or how we display
> >> data?  Otherwise we could just use camonitor on a terminal with caput.
> >>
> >> I think the key to having a decent display manager, one that adapts to
> >> new
> >> technologies, better/different formats (say HTML5/PHP, Qt, text a la
> >> Lynx,
> >> or some fancy Virtual Reality / VTK / QT3d initiative) is to have Epics
> >> easily push/pull from a database (say MySQL, PostgreSQL).  Once that is
> >> done one could use any language, any system, to control and display data
> >> as long as said language or method can access a typical database.
> >>
> >> As a side benefit to using a properly setup database one would
> >> automatically get an archive, and the benefits of database
> >> synchronization/backup, and seamless data compression.
> >>
> >> (Also if someone is excited and jumping in to do this my vote is for
> >> submitting it the Package Management Debian/Ubuntu repository.  I'm a
> >> control systems engineer, and want to spend my time controlling systems,
> >> not compiling very particular versions of modules, libraries, plugins,
> >> and
> >> endless environment variables just to begin my work.)
> >>
> >> My two cents & cheers!
> >>
> >> James Richard Larsson
> >>
> >
> > What is the value in adding an additional intermediate component, such
> > as a SQL database server, to solve the inadequacies of the various
> > existing display managers?  That's a new piece of work for this
> > discussion.  Each IOC already provides the data servers with a common
> > protocol.  One can already use any language, any system, to control and
> > display data as long as said language or method can access an EPICS IOC.
> >
> > Pete
> >
> >
> > --
> > ----------------------------------------------------------
> > Pete R. Jemian, Ph.D.                 <[email protected]>
> > Beam line Controls and Data Acquisition (BC, aka BCDA)
> > Advanced Photon Source,    Argonne National Laboratory
> > Argonne, IL  60439                    630 - 252 - 3189
> > -----------------------------------------------------------
> >        Education is the one thing for which people
> >           are willing to pay yet not receive.
> > -----------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> >
> 

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System