Design of a General Purpose I/O Controller for Particle Accelerators CERN School of Computing 2017 Davide Pedretti PhD student – University of Padova Department of Information Engineering In collaboration with Legnaro National Laboratories (LNL) - INFN Design of a General Purpose I/O Controller for Particle Accelerators 09/08/2017 Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering

SPES Selective Production of Exotic Species (SPES) is a second generation Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) radioactive ion beam (RIB) facility in construction at the National Laboratory of Legnaro, Italy. SPES-RIB The core of this ISOL facility is the 70p cyclotron: a particle accelerator in which negative hydrogen ions (H-) accelerate outwards from the centre along a spiral path until they reach the stripper foils, enabling the extraction of currents up to 750 uA of protons in the energy range 35 to 70 MeV. SPES-DRIVER a d b g The proton beam collides with an uranium carbide (UCx) target and generates the exotic particles by uranium fission. Those neutron-rich radioactive ions get further ionized, selected and the so generated RIB is then re-accelerated and transported to the experimental halls. SPES-LARAMED The SPES project is intended for fundamental nuclear physics research (physics of radioactive nuclear beams is important for investigating the nuclide chart for nuclei far from the stability valley) as well as for nuclear medicine (radiopharmaceutical production for therapy and diagnostic). Accelerator based neutron source (Proton and Neutron Facility for Applied Physics) 09/08/2017 Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering

Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering The Facility Exp. areas Beam cooler MRMS ALPI RFQ 1+ Exp. areas CB HRMS Target Cyclotron PIAVE XTU-Tandem LRMS Part of the facility is completely new: Cyclotron RIB production RIB manipulation and transport to the LINAC In part, the SPES accelerator complex builds on the existing LINAC accelerator that mast be upgraded. 09/08/2017 Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering

The Control System The context of the PhD project is the SPES distributed control system. Several different appliances with very different requirements and performing different tasks, must be integrated into a single control system solution that allows the operators to control and monitor all the devices remotely, from a central control room. CONTROL ROOM (operator interfaces) Accelerator control system RF control Beam Diagnostic Magnets Vacuum Cryogenics Our aim is to extend the control reach to any single or small group of appliances, but on the other hand, the complexity of the distributed control network and the need for maintainability and modularity call for hardware and software standardization. Is it possible to achieve standardization embedding the controls of any appliance or small group of appliances around the complex? 09/08/2017 Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering

A Generic Input Output Controller PCIe slots SFP transceiver: Optical ethernet Gbps serial links ATX/AT standard power supply. PoE+ compatible ADCs & DACs FPGA LPC FMC Connector COM Express 8 x RS232/422 Remote FPGA configuration 09/08/2017 Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering

Why? Try to think about Software while developing Hardware! We are speaking about a production of 100 pieces or more. Standardization. We can boot a standard Linux distribution. The x86_64 architecture makes software development straightforward. Flexibility. Modularity: we can easily extend or reduce the board features saving money. The FPGA provides support for fast peripherals control and real-time tasks. Try to think about Software while developing Hardware! 09/08/2017 Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering

Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering Lesson Learned About security…. Is my credit card secure? NO! Yesterday an hacker enjoyed online shopping with my credit card 09/08/2017 Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering

Detection and Reaction Detection: I received an sms informing me that someone was shopping online with my credit card: amount spent 199,99 euro….for problems call 800… Reaction: It is a joke! amount spent 145 euro….for problems call 800… After 1 minute… Reaction: Maybe it is not a joke! Better to call immediately and block my credit card 09/08/2017 Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering

Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering Better Protection 1° call: was dropped. 2° call: was dropped. 3° call: a registered voice listing all the possible actions….after 10 minutes I was finally able to speak with an operator and I blocked my credit card amount spent xxx euro….for problems call 800… In the mean time, I received 5 more sms: At the end my credit card was empty. Detection and reaction are good, but is better protection. 09/08/2017 Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering

Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering Thank You 09/08/2017 Davide Pedretti – Department of Information Engineering