Implementation of intelligent data acquisition systems for fusion experiment using EPICS and FlexRIO technology

Currently, the hardware devices and software tools used in data acquisition systems (DAQs) for diagnostics in fusion experiments are not standardized. This implies that the implementation of new requirements, needed by scientists and diagnostic experts, demand a big amount of time in the developing of a new hardware and software, delaying the integration of new experiments. The solution presented in this paper consists on a design model that gives the possibility of developing intelligent and reconfigurable data acquisition systems, for an easy integration in fusion diagnostics. The main hardware components used for this design model are the RIO/FlexRIO devices from National Instruments, which are embedded systems based on FPGA, and PXI/PXIe technology. The main software element is an EPICS device support based on asynDriver software technology that provides easy integration in EPICS environment. The result of integrating both elements is a methodology for developing complex DAQ systems, using reconfigurable hardware for implementing any kind of customized data acquisition with preprocessing. The methodology has been evaluated obtaining results and performance figures in three different applications integrated in an ITER fast controller.