1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

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