[en] This document describes the core software that resides in an Input/Output Controller (IOC), one of the major components of EPICS. EPICS consists of a set of software components and tools that Application Developers use to create a control system. The basic components are: OPI-Operator Interface. This is a UNIX based workstation which can run various EPICS tools; IOC-Input/Output Controller. This is a VME/VXI based chassis containing a processor, various I/O modules and VME modules that provide access to other I/O buses such as GPIB; and LAN-Local Area Network. This is the communication network which allows the IOCs and OPIs to communicate. EPICS provides a software component, Channel Access, which provides network transparent communication between a Channel Access client and an arbitrary number of Channel Access servers. This report is intended for anyone developing EPICS IOC databases and/or new record/device/driver support

[en] The Static Database Access library was first introduced in EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) Release 3.11 in 1994. It provides an application program interface (API) for database configuration tools written in C to manipulate database record definitions and is used for various tasks within the core EPICS software. This paper describes the structure of a replacement for the original library that adds a native C++ API and will make some future enhancements to EPICS significantly easier to implement

[en] This manual describes a set of tools that can be used to develop software for EPICS based control systems. It provides the following features: Multiple applications; the entire system is composed of an arbitrary number of applications: Source/Release Control; all files created or modified by the applications developers can be put under sccs (a UNIX Source/Release control utility): Multiple Developers; it allows a number of applications developers to work separately during the development phase but combine their applications for system testing and for a production system; Makefiles: makefiles are provided to automatically rebuild various application components. For C and state notation programs, Imagefiles are provided

[en] At NSLS-II, Python has been selected as the primary development language for physics applications. Interest in Python as a rapid application development environment continues to grow. Many large experimental scientific facilities have adopted Python for beam commissioning and the operation. The EPICS control system framework has become the de facto standard for the control of large experimental facilities, where it is in use in over 100 facilities. The next version of EPICS (EPICS V4), under active development will extend the support for physics applications, data acquisition, and data analysis. Python support for EPICS V4 will provide an effective framework to address these requirements. This paper presents design, development and status of activities focused on EPICS V4 in Python

[en] The beam commissioning software framework of NSLS-II project adopts a client/server based architecture to replace the more traditional monolithic high level application approach. The server software under development is available via an open source sourceforge project named epics-pvdata, which consists of modules pvData, pvAccess, pvIOC, and pvService. Examples of two services that already exist in the pvService module are itemFinder, and gather. Each service uses pvData to store in-memory transient data, pvService to transfer data over the network, and pvIOC as the service engine. The performance benchmarking for pvAccess and both gather service and item finder service are presented in this paper. The performance comparison between pvAccess and Channel Access are presented also. For an ultra low emittance synchrotron radiation light source like NSLS II, the control system requirements, especially for beam control are tight. To control and manipulate the beam effectively, a use case study has been performed to satisfy the requirement and theoretical evaluation has been performed. The analysis shows that model based control is indispensable for beam commissioning and routine operation. However, there are many challenges such as how to re-use a design model for on-line model based control, and how to combine the numerical methods for modeling of a realistic lattice with the analytical techniques for analysis of its properties. To satisfy the requirements and challenges, adequate system architecture for the software framework for beam commissioning and operation is critical. The existing traditional approaches are self-consistent, and monolithic. Some of them have adopted a concept of middle layer to separate low level hardware processing from numerical algorithm computing, physics modelling, data manipulating and plotting, and error handling. However, none of the existing approaches can satisfy the requirement. A new design has been proposed by introducing service oriented architecture technology, and client interface is undergoing. The design and implementation adopted a new EPICS implementation, namely epics-pvdata (9), which is under active development. The implementation of this project under Java is close to stable, and binding to other language such as C++ and/or Python is undergoing. In this paper, we focus on the performance benchmarking and comparison for pvAccess and Channel Access, the performance evaluation for 2 services, gather and item finder respectively.

[en] This document presents the design for implementing the requirements specified in: EPICS -- Channel Access Security -- functional requirements, Ned. D. Arnold, 03/09/92. Use of the access security system is described along with a summary of the functional requirements. The programmer's interface is given. Security protocol is described and finally aids for reading the access security code are provided

[en] This manual describes a set of Application Source/Release Control tools (appSR) that can be used to develop software for EPICS based control systems. The Application Source/Release Control System (appSR) has been unbundled from base EPICS and is now available as an EPICS extension. Due to this unbundling, two new directories must be added to a user's path (see section ''Environment'' on page 3 for more information) and a new command getapp must be issued after the getrel command to get a specific version of appSR (see section ''Creating The Initial Application System Area'' on page 7 for more information). It is now required that GNU make version 3.71 or later be used for makes instead of SUN make. Users should now type gmake instead of make

[en] This document describes source/release control for EPICS add on tools. Tool Developer, Add On CONFIG Tools, and the EPICS System Manager are described in detail

[en] This paper presents the current status of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) control system. It will discuss the design decisions which led us to use industrial standards and collaborations with other laboratories to develop the APS control system. The system uses high performance graphic workstations and the X-windows Graphical User Interface (GUI) at the operator interface level. It connects to VME/VXI-based microprocessors at the field level using TCP/IP protocols over high performance networks. This strategy assures the flexibility and expansibility of the control system. A defined interface between the system components will allow the system to evolve with the direct addition of future, improved equipment and new capabilities

[en] An important component of EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) is iocCore, which is the core software in the IOC (input/output controller) front-end processors. At ICALEPCS 1999 a paper was presented describing plans to port iocCore to multiple operating systems. At that time iocCore only supported vxWorks, but now it also supports RTEMS, Solaris, Linux, and WinNT. This paper describes some key features of how iocCore supports multiple operating systems