High level requirements:  VLT does not see difference to FIERA/IRACE Intermediate level requirements: Huge on-the-fly data processing (infrared) Shutter/telemetry handling (optical) see poster “Keep control: PULPO II Eso's new housekeeping unit”, by C.Geimer et al. And many more …  Optical/Infrared sw cannot be completely identical Software for the ESO New General detector Controller Claudio Cumani, Andrea Balestra, Joerg Stegmeier European Southern Observatory

See: talk “NGC Detector Array Controller Based on High Speed Serial” by M. Meyer and poster “NGC Front-end for CCDs and AO applications” by J.Reyes et al. At low level: Sequencer on the FPGA of each board Elementary detector timings are stored in patterns / voltages are stored in configuration files Patterns can be executed in series and/or loops, at different speeds, with different intervals Changes in pattern execution can be performed on the fly

Repetition Factors RESET LOOP 10 DELAY 5 LOOP 100 READ DELAY 20 END Sequence FrameStart LOOP 1024 RowStart LOOP 64 ReadPixel 16 ResetPixel END RESET READ DELAY Pattern/Dispatcher Micro-Sequence RowStart ReadPixel FrameStart ShiftColumn ShiftRow ResetPixel FrameEnd Delay Clock-Pattern Prototype first-light already achieved ! NGC Sequencer programming