1. Automated Software Configuration in the MONSOON System
P. N. Daly
N. C. Buchholz
P. C. Moore
(NOAO)
Copyright, 2004 © AURA, Inc.

2. MONSOON Team
L to R: Peter Moore, Dee Stover, Paul Schmitt, Dave Dryden, John Garcia, Jerry Penegor, Nick Buchholz, Phil Daly and Dave Sawyer. (Not shown: Gustavo Rahmer, Mike Warner, Ricardo Schmidt, Mark Hunten).

3. MONSOON Results 8 August 2003: First Light Aladdin
19 September 2003: First Light Hawaii II
29 September 2003: First Light CCD

4. Typical MONSOON System

5. Configuration Requirements
Provide an automated boot and configuration system for safe detector operations
Provide astronomer, hardware and software engineering interfaces
Provide edit capability from various operating systems and trusted users

6. The GPX Dictionary
Only point of entry for high level software (HLS) systems and/or astronomers
Named modes hide underlying functionality
Translated to PPX commands on a 1-to-1 or 1-to-many basis

7. Software / Hardware Engineers
Look at the same system differently
Need ability to call commands different names
Need ability for hardware engineers to add new commands with little or no effort from software engineers
Needs back door for debug/development

8. The MONSOON Configuration File
Simple ASCII text file CSV format
1 command entry per line
Well-understood fields
Easy to edit and re-load
CSV
This format was used because
the original configuration
files were generated via
an Excel spreadsheet

9. Configuration Record Fields
Field SQL Type Example Description
panName varchar(32) intTime Unique PAN name
dheName varchar(32) MCB_SEQITR Non-unique DHE name
baseAddr integer 0x Base address in DHE memory
nelms integer 1 Number of array elements
Creg integer 0x Miscellaneous control register
setMethod text SIMPLE Function to call to encode a value
getMethod text SIMPLE Function to call to decode a value
panType text FLOAT Data type as known to PAN
dheSize text ULONG Data size as known to DHE
coef1 float First coefficient to conversion function
coef2 float Second coefficient to conversion function
funcID text LINEAR Conversion function
minValue float Minimum value (before conversion)
maxValue float Maximum value (before conversion)
units varchar(32) seconds Units (if applicable)
help varchar(128) Integration time to 1 ms Associated help text

10. Memory Map
cmdListPPX holds the well-known PPX/GPX commands (fixed number of entries)
cmdListATT is loaded from lines in the configuration file (variable number of entries)
Each panName becomes a new command

11. Command Execution cmdListPPX is searched first
cmdListATT is search if command is not found in PPX table:
Parameter not present: read execute
Parameter present: write execute

12. Example (integration time)
Set the integration time:
gpxSetAVP intTime=4.0
ppxSetAVP intTime=4.0
intTime 4.0
Get the integration time:
gpxGetAVP intTime
ppxGetAVP intTime
intTime NB
HLS software uses the GPX/PPX
interface whereas software and
hardware engineers typically
use the ATT interface

13. Array Handling
If nelms > 1, an array of commands is automatically created which can be used:
Single element:
mcbSeqLoopReg[12] 44.0
Range of elements:
mcbSeqLoopReg[] <2:8> 44.0
All elements:
mcbSeqLoopReg[] 44.0

14. Problems with this approach
Unix file clobbering can ruin your day
No error checking of CSV file
No template to start from
Our solution to these problems is to create and maintain an SQL database

15. MSDs SQL Database ... Create database using MSDs:
CREATE DATABASE monsoondb;
\c monsoondb
CREATE FUNCTION msdsql_msd( ) RETURNS float8
AS ‘/MNSN/soft_dev/lib/libmsdSql’ LANGUAGE C;
CREATE TABLE generic_I (
panName varchar(32),
dheName varchar(32),
baseAddr integer CHECK(baseAddr>=0).
nelms integer CHECK(nelms>=0),
creg integer CHECK(creg>=0),
MSDs
For an explanation of MSDs, see
“The MONSOON Implementation
of the Generic Pixel Server”
by Daly & Buchholz
( )

16. SQL Database … continued
setMethod text CHECK(setMethod=‘NOMETHOD’ OR setMethod=‘SIMPLE’ OR setMethod=‘INTTIME’ OR setMethod=‘ROISETC’ OR setMethod=‘ROISETR’ OR setMethod=‘FNAMESET’ OR setMethod=‘FNAMESET’ OR setMethod=‘SETVOFF’ OR setMethod=‘SETBIASV’ OR setMethod=‘SETFBIAS’ OR setMethod=‘WRT2READ’ OR setMethod=‘STRINGSET’ OR setMethod=‘RDMSKWRT’),
getMethod text CHECK(getMethod=‘NOMETHOD’ OR getMethod=‘SIMPLE’ OR getMethod=‘INTTIME’ OR getMethod=‘ROISETC’ OR getMethod=‘ROISETR’ OR getMethod=‘FNAMESET’ OR getMethod=‘FNAMESET’ OR getMethod=‘SETVOFF’ OR getMethod=‘SETBIASV’ OR getMethod=‘SETFBIAS’ OR getMethod=‘WRT2READ’ OR getMethod=‘STRINGSET’ OR getMethod=‘RDMSKWRT’),
panType text CHECK(panType=‘CHAR’ OR panType=‘UCHAR’ OR panType=‘SHORT’ OR panType=‘USHORT’ OR panType=‘INT’ OR panType=‘UINT’ OR panType=‘LONG’ OR panType=‘ULONG’ OR panType=‘STRING’ OR panType=‘FLOAT’),
dheSize text CHECK(dheSize=‘ONEBIT’ OR dheSize=‘BYTE’ OR dheSize=‘CHAR’ OR dheSize=‘UCHAR’ OR dheSize=‘SHORT’ OR dheSize=‘USHORT’ OR dheSize=‘LONG’ OR dheSize=‘ULONG’ OR dheSize=‘TWLVBIT’ OR dheSize=‘TWNT4BIT’),

17. SQL Database … continued
coef1 float8,
coef2 float8,
funcID text CHECK(funcID=‘ERROR’ OR funcID=‘LINEAR’ OR funcID=‘POWER’ OR funcID=‘TABLE1’ OR funcID=‘BITFIELD’ OR funcID=‘NONE’),
minValue float8,
maxValue float8,
units varchar(32),
help varchar(128),
id integer CHECK(id>=0),
msd float8 CHECK(msd>=0.0) );
CREATE FUNCTION msdsql_utc( ) RETURNS int4 AS ‘/MNSN/soft_dev/lib/libmsdSql’ LANGUAGE C;
CREATE FUNCTION msdsql_mjd( ) RETURNS float8 AS ‘/MNSN/soft_dev/lib/libmsdSql’ LANGUAGE C;
CREATE FUNCTION msdsql_jd( ) RETURNS float8 AS ‘/MNSN/soft_dev/lib/libmsdSql’ LANGUAGE C;
CREATE FUNCTION msdsql_ld( ) RETURNS float8 AS ‘/MNSN/soft_dev/lib/libmsdSql’ LANGUAGE C;

18. Populating the SQL Database
Use well-used CSV files and convert via Perl scripts:
csv2sql Converts CSV to SQL
csv2xml Converts CSV to XML
xml2csv Converts XML to CSV
xml2sql Converts XML to SQL
sql2csv Recovers database records to CSV
sql2xml Recovers database records to XML

19. Displaying the Configuration
Can use Unix utilities such as cat, more, vi
XML for web-browsing:
MONSOON schema developed
MONSOON style sheet developed
Consistent look and feel to output regardless of detector type

20. Typical XML Record <monsoonRecord id="1">
<panName>intTime</panName>
<dheName>MCB_SEQITR</dheName>
<baseAddr>0x </baseAddr>
<nelms>1</nelms>
<creg>0x </creg>
<setMethod>SIMPLE</setMethod>
<getMethod>SIMPLE</getMethod>
<panType>FLOAT</panType>
<dheSize>ULONG</dheSize>
<coef1>1000.0</coef1>
<coef2>0.0</coef2>
<funcID>LINEAR</funcID>
<minValue>0.0</minValue>
<maxValue> </maxValue>
<units>s</units>
<help>Integration time to 1 ms</help>
</monsoonRecord>

21. XML Record Via Web-Browser

22. Java Front End … TBD

23. Conclusions
Ability to talk to MONSOON via a number of appropriate mechanisms
Named modes automate startup
Extensible command and configuration file
Persistency via SQL
Common visualization via XML
Cross-platform database access via Java

24. Papers at SPIE ...
N. C. Buchholz and P. N. Daly, “The MONSOON Generic Pixel Server Software Design”,
P. N. Daly and N. C. Buchholz, “The MONSOON Implementation of the Generic Pixel Server”,
P. N. Daly, N. C. Buchholz and P. C. Moore, “Automated Software Configuration in the MONSOON System”,
N. C. Buchholz and P. N. Daly. “The Generic Pixel Server Dictionary”,
R. G. Probst, N. Gaughan, G. Chisholm, P. N. Daly, E. A. Hileman, M. Hunten, M. Liang, K. M. Merrill and J. Penegor, “Project Status of NEWFIRM: the Wide-field Infrared Camera for NOAO 4m Telescopes”,