Controls-status-8-aug-2008

Recall I presented a three-tier architecture at the System review:

Device Control System - DCS

This layer controls the hardware and contains all control loops. Main components are an Allen-Bradley PLC and the hardware it controls, and manufacturer-supplied ethernet-accessible devices (e.g. CAEN mainframe).

Progress:

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition - SCADA

This layer displays, archives, and alarms on data from the DCS layer. EPICS is our current choice for this layer, but as Elke has noted, we may not need EPICS as the functionality of the DCS and ECS layers grow towards each other.

Progress:

Experiment Control System - ECS

This layer integrates run control and all slow controls into a coherent system. AFECS from the JLab DAQ group is our current choice. This layer implements high-level state machines using the AFECS scripting language COOL.

Progress: