ZEBRA Tom Cobb presented by Nick Rees

What is a zebra? Zebras (/ˈzɛbrə/ ZEB-rə or /ˈziːbrə/ ZEE-brə)[1] are several species of African equids (horse family) united by their distinctive black and white stripes./ˈzɛbrə/ZEB-rə/ˈziːbrə/ZEE-brə[1]

What is ZEBRA? A digital signal level converter and position compare box 1U metal box with front panel BNCs and Lemos and rear panel encoder inputs

What does ZEBRA do? Takes front panel single channel inputs – TTL, LVDS, PECL, NIM, Open Collector And rear panel encoder signals – A+B RS422 Quadrature decoder, Z, connected Pass the signals through some FPGA logic – Logic gates, position compare circuitry Ouput front and rear panel signals – Same format as inputs, rewirable at run time

FPGA Design Communications (8-bit soft Micro Controller) Logic Control Position Compare SRAM Ctrl UART Ctrl Spartan-6 FPGA RS Mbit SPI Flash 2MBx8 SRAM 12 x LVTTL Inputs 12 x LVTTL outputs 4 Ch x RS422 outputs 4 Ch x RS422 Inputs 256x16 Config BRAM ctrl arm/gate/ pulse ctrl rs422 signals

How do you configure ZEBRA? baud RS232 link to EPICS Parameters set/get via EPICS Logic blocks rewired via the system bus Data download of position/time information Save to internal flash

The System Bus

AND/OR Blocks

GATE Blocks

DIV Blocks

PULSE Blocks

QUAD Block and Encoders

PC Setup

PC Plot

What doesn’t ZEBRA do? Analogue Signals < 20ns Low latency data transfer High bandwidth data transfer Sequencing

When can I have one? Available from Quantum Detectors ucts/zebra ucts/zebra Should be in stock by Christmas

Ideas for Zebra2 Ethernet interface TCP not UDP, so... Zinq, rather than Spartan6 IOC on board(?) Additional encoder capture/trigger signals: Analogue input Serial encoder input Event reciever (?) Better support for counters Differences? More gates