RE: Advantages of running IOC on FPGA

["Kunjir, Shriraj via Tech-talk" <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

Hi Till,

Thank you for your response. Could you please elaborate on the maintenance and network security aspect of such an LLRF controller when it runs IOC on its PS side Linux?

We are evaluating the potential of running IOC on our Zynq based LLRF controllers.

 

From: Till Straumann via Tech-talk
Sent: Tuesday, June 1, 2021 5:09 PM
To: tech-talk at aps.anl.gov
Subject: Re: Advantages of running IOC on FPGA

 

[EXTERNAL] This email originated from outside of FRIB

I'd say that the 'traditionally' an IOC *is* actually executed on a front-end controller
with EPICS taking care of networking and control-system integration. This is what
EPICS was originally designed for. (IOCs running on embedded VME computer that
were directly talking to hardware).

When you don't run an IOC on the Zynq then you have to invent your proprietary
UDP protocol, write some sort of server that does I/O on the Zynq and some protocol
translation to EPICS on the 'IOC server'.

 FPGA <-> ZYNQ (I/O -> UDP) <-> ethernet <-> server (UDP -> EPICS)

You can eliminate all this effort simply by running an IOC on the zynq.

Cheers
- Till


On 6/1/21 10:14 PM, Kunjir, Shriraj via Tech-talk wrote:

Hello,

Could you please help in understanding the advantages of running IOC server on LLRF Zynq FPGA over the traditional method of a standalone IOC server connecting to LLRF FPGA via UDP. Thank you

Raj