1. ALICE
Alpide Test Software

2. Software Structure & Status

3. Structure Basic Software Structure
Basic classes TAlpide and TReadoutBoard (DAQ Board or MOSAIC)
Setup is contained in one vectors of TAlpides and one vector of TReadoutBoards
Each Alpide “knows” its readout board
Each readout board knows control interface and receiver number for each of its Alpides
Relations can be set manually for each device, but pre-defined setups exist (Single chip, IB HIC, OB HIC)
Scalable to arbitrarily large structures, test routines independent of structure
Tests typically loop over complete vector of chips

4. Software Structure Helper Classes
In principle all functionality is available via basic functions (e.g. Read/WriteRegister)
But several helper functions help to perform standard procedures:
SetupHelpers.cpp: initialisaton of standard setups
AlpideConfig.cpp: standard configuration methods (Masking, standard configurations of complete blocks: DTU, CMU…)
AlpideDecoder.cpp: Decoding of Alpide event data
Needs a bit of cleanup, but in principle OK to use with GUI where needed

5. Software Structure Test Applications
Set of independent test programs, one for each test type
Output written to text files for further analysis
Advantage: flexible and fast to prepare new tests
But: not suitable for GUI -> Scan class

6. Todo / Next Steps

7. Known issues
Encapsulate output in messaging class (Xiaoming)
Use exceptions throughout basic classes (tbc)
Move configuration settings to config file (Markus)
Prepare setup for half-stave (Yasser)
Prepare scan class to be used by GUI (Markus)

8. Tscan class

9. Tscan class General considerations
Generic base class containing all possible steps of a loop-based scan as virtual methods
Implementation of specific actions in derived classes for the concrete scans
3-nested-loop scan should satisfy all present and future scans (e.g. threshold scan: inner loop pulse height, outer loop mask staging; 3 loops would add possibility to scan over ITHR)

10. Scan Steps Methods needed for the different phases of the scan
Tscan::Init() Prepare setup for scan, e.g. set voltages, save module configuration for later restoration
Tscan::LoopStart(int loopIndex) Settings to be performed once at the beginning of the loop
Tscan::PrepareStep(int loopIndex) Prepare the individual scan step, mainly setting of the loop scan variable
Tscan::Execute() Execute a step of the scan
Tscan::LoopEnd(int loopIndex) End-of-loop actions; typically histogram related actions or calculations needed for execution of next step
Tscan::Terminate() End-of-scan actions, e.g. restoring of initial configuration

11. Loop Control Methods needed for the control of the scan loops
Bool Tscan::Loop(int loopIndex) Returns whether the given loop is currently active; check for scan range and abort flag
Tscan::Next(int loopIndex) Moves to next loop step

12. Scan Execution, 3-Loop Scan
TScan *scn = new TScan (TScanType type, TScanConfig *cfg,
std::vector<TAlpide> chips,
std::vector<TReadoutBoard> boards);
scn->Reset();
scn->Init();
scn->LoopStart (2);
While (scn->Loop(2)) {
scn->prepareStep(2);
scn->LoopStart(1);
while (scn->Loop(1)) {
scn->PrepareStep(1);
scn->LoopStart(0);
while (scn->Loop(0)) {
scn->PrepareStep(0);
scn->Execute();
scn->Next(0); }
scn->LoopEnd(0);
scn->Next(1);
scn->LoopEnd(1);
scn->Next(2);
scn->LoopEnd(2);
scn->Terminate();

13. Parameters Scan parameters Chip vector Board vector Scan type
Trigger configuration
Scan-specific chip settings (analogue or digital injection etc. ) …
Loop parameters
Loop parameter (parameter that is changed in loop; note that mask staging is used as a special loop parameter)
List of values for parameter or min, max, step size
End-of-loop actions
Later: information whether loop is performed in RU?