Overview

Stemming from physics, where a new accelerator may take more than ten years to develop and is operated for at least ten years throughout several updates, the electronic equipment used must maintain interoperation between all successive generations over an average period of twenty years. Our boards (computing elements and bus interfaces) and board support packages are designed to fulfill this requirement. The RIO2 - RIO3 - RIO4 generations range from a PowerPC 603 at 200 MHz to a PowerPC 7488 at 1 GHz and from 10 KGates Altera FPGAs to 2.5 MGates Virtex-5 FPGAs. This philosophy is particularly useful for aircraft equipment, where engineering costs to cover obsolescence or legacy can ead to major over-costs and delays.

BSP Compatibilty

The CES Board Support Package recognizes the platform and the identification of the processor and selects the appropriate files corresponding to this environment. When the new technology is not exactly compatible with the old one, CES provides a backward compatible control interface, in addition to the calls supporting the new capabilities. Each virtual (FPGA-based) or real (IC-based) component on CES boards is supported by a set of calls directly accessible to the user at the BSP level. This strategy has been applied in the LHC VME Control System, in ATM / IP Satellite Image Distribution Systems and in multiple aircraft retrofit programs (Airbus, Eurofighter, Hawk and Tornado).