Implementation of Intelligent Data Acquisition Systems for Fusion Experiments Using EPICS and FlexRIO Technology

Currently, the hardware devices and software tools used in data acquisition (DAQ) systems for diagnostics in fusion experiments are not standardized. Consequently, the development of new hardware and software needed by scientists and diagnostic experts to implement new solutions, requires a substantial amount of time delaying the execution of new experiments. The solution presented in this paper consists of a design model that provides the potential for developing intelligent and reconfigurable data acquisition systems for easy integration in fusion diagnostics. The main hardware components used for this design model are the flexible reconfigurable input/output (FlexRIO) devices from National Instruments, which are embedded systems based on field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and PXI/PXIe technology. The main software element is an EPICS device support, based on asynDriver software technology, that provides easy integration in the EPICS environment. Integrating these two elements enables the development of complex DAQ systems using reconfigurable hardware to implement any type of customized data acquisition with preprocessing. The methodology proposed here was evaluated by obtaining results and performance figures for three different applications integrated in an ITER fast controller.