The ETRAX 100LX MCM from AXIS (Wikipedia: en/de)
is the core of several boards (e.g. HADControl (HadCon), TRB) developed at our department. To implement EPICS for this architecture two options are offered:
Cross compiling EPICS for the ETRAX CRIS architecture
using the build system of EPICS
contained in the in EPICS base since release 3.14.10
DIM as intermediate protocol with DIM API compiled for ETRAX CRIS
The so-called plug computer family of GLOBALSCALE technologies is an interesting platform based on ARM5 Marvell core to have a quite powerful front-end PC available.
Ways to run EPICS on it are documented.
... more see PlugComputer
HadCon is a general purpose IO module for detector and experiment control as well as for small data acquisition systems.
(HADControl general purpose board)
Since its first application has been a power monitor for the Hades Shower Detector it has been formerly introduced and well known as HadShoPoMo (Hades Shower Power Monitor (HADControl/HadShoPoMo general purpose board).
HadCon has an SoC on-board, ETRAX 100LX MCM 4+16 from AXIS (Wikipedia: en/de) - which will be discontinued, see the new HadCon2.
Running a standard Linux the Etrax provides "Connectivity to the world" via TCP/IP.
On the other side it connects via its internal serial interface to an ATMEL AT90CAN128 microcontroller and optionally to an Xilinx CPLD.
Via this junction the ATMEL provides a multitude of possible connections to field buses and general I/O ports.
EPICS base and its applications, modules, and extensions can be cross-compiled to run on Etrax Axis' CRIS architecture (see section Architecture: ETRAX's CRIS by AXIS
HadCon2 is a credit-card sized general purpose I/O module for detector and experiment controls as well as for small data acquisition systems.
It is the successor of the discontinued first version HadCon ( HADControl/HadShoPoMo general purpose board, HadCon @ Epics Wiki).
The module has an ATMEL AT90CAN128 microcontroller providing a multitude of connectivity:
I2C (8/4 fold (intern/extern) multiplexer), 6 channel 1-wire master, 8-channel 8bit DAC, galvanically isolated CAN - high-speed transceiver, 8-channel 10-bit SAR ADC, byte-oriented SPI, in total up-to 53 programmable I/O lines and optionally a Lattice MachX02 FPGA for fast data processing tasks.
While the discontinued precursor HadCon had an SoC on-board, its successor HadCon2 has broken up this concept in favour of a more open access:
It doesn't have any CPU on board, but a USB connector to directly allow communication with any type and size of computer (e.g. PC, raspberry PI, dreamplug, ...) having an USB port on one side and at the other end the microcontroller and the FGPA. This communication is based on an ASCII-based protocol in view of easy implementation in detector control systems like e.g. EPICS and LabVIEW.
OWADC1 is a small, compact board designed by M.Traxler and S.Voltz (GSI/EE) to provide an 8 channel, max. 16bit ADC to be accessed by 1-wire protocol
... more see OWADC1 - 1-wire 8-channel ADC board
Based upon the HadCon2 multi I/O board, the DreamPlug Plug Computer, and the 1-wire based ADC board OwAdc a small, slim, multi analog/digital I/O box is built.
Its first use case will be the replacement of old hardware in the HADES experiment at GSI.
It provides:
CPU/OS:
ARM based "standard" Linux
Data access
internal USB interface
via ASCII-based protocol
EPICS compliant
I/O
16 (differential/single ended) ADC analog input channels 0-5/10 Volts
The project activites within this section are considered to be discontinued or only resumed upon request.
Virtex4/5, Spartan
Discontinuation
Meanwhile there seems to be no longer interest in this project from the side of CBM. Therefore this project is considered to be closed and discontinued.
At ICALEPCS 2009, Miroslaw Dach, PSI, mailto:miroslaw.dach_at_psi.de, presented running solutions for EPICS application embedded into an Virtex 4 or even Virtex 5. During private coversation he stated, that it took him several years to have it running, but now he is confident to present solution for new application and Virtex based platforms within a day.
Another Solution - Linux 2.6 available on Virtex4 FX 12. Have a look at my FREEDAC Ljubljana Notes on Victor Pucknell, Daresbury