OWG meeting 31-Jan-2008

Agenda

• Review of minutes from 14-Dec-2007 meeting
• Electronics diagrams - Chris
• Update on event size study - David for Eugene (who is out of town)
• Experiment controls (see also Experiment Control System Choice) - Vardan
• Field Bus and Controller Specifications - Elliott
• Slow Controls Framework Choice - Elliott
• Online Design Goals and Online Major Milestones now include Electronics - Fernando, Elliott
• Online Action Items

Time/Location

Note change from usual date/time: 10am Thurs 31-Jan-2008 CC F326
(Fri 1-Feb-2008 is tracking review all day)

To connect by telephone:

1) dial:
+1-800-377-8846 : US
+1-888-276-7715 : Canada
+1-302-709-8424 : International

2) enter participant code: 39527048# (remember the "#")

Next Meeting

Fri 15-Feb-2008 2pm CC F326

New Action Items from this Meeting

• Use full-scale FDC test as testbed for controls system.

Minutes

Attendees: Dave L, Dave A, Dave D, Elke, Vardan, Chris C, Fernando, Elliott.

Chris Cuevas showed the latest electronics diagrams

• Chris showed some new drawings, many things moving well along
• Chris showed the latest crate, FADC, and F1TDC counts
• Lots of progress defining newer systems such as TS crate
• ATCA may be an interesting alternative for the global sum crate (more on ATCA at the next meeting...)
• Chris reviewed milestone status
• Four more FADC250's coming, VXS testing continues
• 12-bit is our standard for the FADC250
• Now have some space in Stan's lab downstairs
• TI design in progress
• New hire starting to work on clock and trigger distribution
• Collecting specs for F1TDC version 2
• Crate sum design and prototyping going well
• 12-bit FADC requires front-end redesign to use new chip...current one runs too hot
• All drawings will follow Hall D official numbering scheme
• Need network diagrams, location of patch panels, routes, etc.
• More work needed on cable routes, rack layouts, etc. taking maintainability into account
• Three crates per rack seems ok

Dave Lawrence reported for Eugene Chudakov on progress in the event size study

• Low and high energy photon parts now combined in a single MC generator
• Threshold to about 3 GeV comes from cross section tables, above 3 GeV is Pythia
• MC includes coherent bremstrahlung spectrum
• Still needs realistic trigger algorithm
• Chinese group will arrive end of March and may work on event size study

Vardan Gurjyan told us about AFECS, the JLab DAQ group experiment controls framework

• AFECS == Agent Framework for Experiment Controls Systems
• Includes finite state machines (FSM's)
• Allows interoperation of hardware and software in a control system
• Allows integration of DAQ, run control, slow controls, etc.
• Talking to a component involves talking to its agent using a uniform API for all agents
• Allows scalability since only the agent needs a driver, and so some bottlenecks can be avoided
• Allows hiearchical design including FSM's at any level
• Supports many protocols (cMsg, CA, OPC, SNMP, etc)
• Written in pure Java
• Web-based monitoring component exists

Elliott presented preliminary choices for controls field busses and controller protocols

Elliott proposed Linux-only EPICS for the slow controls layer in the Hall D control system