1. Instrument Control Systems Seminar 2014, 20 th -24 th October 2014 Instrument Control Systems 2014 NGC controller Leander Mehrgan

2. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 ESO precursor controller  IR data acquisition system and ACE as optical controller IRAC camera and its controller 1987 ACE controller at NTT La Silla Sequencer programming language: Assembler

3. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 IRACE, InfraRed Array Control Electronics In 1994 the Infrared Detector Group started with the development of the IRACE controller.

4. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 IRACE, InfraRed Array Control Electronics In 1994 the Infrared Detector Group started with the development of the IRACE controller. IRACE Giga board for data transfer with one Gigabit per second IRACE Giga board for data transfer with one Gigabit per second

5. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 IRACE, InfraRed Array Control Electronics First light with ISAAC in 1998. From 1998 to 2008 IRACE was the ESO standard controller for InfraRed application. This controller was based on Transputer processors. gigabit fiber for data low speed fiber for command

6. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 FIERA, Fast Imager Electronic Readout Assembly In 1995 the Optical Detector Team (ODT) started with the development of the FIERA controller. 4 channel video board clock board Communication board

7. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 FIERA, Fast Imager Electronic Readout Assembly From 1998 to 2008 FIERA was the ESO standard controller for Optical application. This controller was based on DSP processors. FIERA 16 output video channels for NAOS chip

8. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 FIERA and IRACE are still used by many instruments at ESO telescopes Using FIERA controllerUsing IRACE controller ISAAC UVESNACO CONICA CRIRES S HAWK-I SOFI GIRAFFE X-SHOOTER FORS VIMOS OmegaCAM SINFONI FINITO IRIS VISIR X-SHOOTER VINCI VISTA PRIMA EMMI

9. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 ESO detector controller Both controller have been extremely successful.  but various limitations, e.g.:  mass (OmegaCAM: ¼ ton), volume, heat dissipation  obsolete components  voltage range and swing  speed, number of channels  2 successes (= 2 costs) Therefore ….  Make new design, taking advantage of new technologies  Do it as a joint IR+ODT effort, merging all past experience Therefore ….  Make new design, taking advantage of new technologies  Do it as a joint IR+ODT effort, merging all past experience

10. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 NGC, New General detector Controller  Both development teams, FIERA and IRACE, merged into one team, the NGC.  In 2004 the NGC team started with a new design.  Features of the NGC:  No parallel bus system, only high speed serial links  Central element on each board is a Xilinx FPGA  Digital parts, like RAMs, FIFOs, and the sequencer are fully implemented in the FPGA  Data and commands time multiplexed transferring

11. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 Different type of NGCs  SCI-NGC: the scientific NGC, which is used for all type of detectors  AO-NGC: used to readout the e2v CCD220 detector with a very compact, high speed integrated controller.  The same back-end interface is used for both NGC types. WFS camera (AO-NGC) Core of the SCI-NGC

12. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 Different type of housing  The NGC provides different type of housing: Fanless housing (needed for GRAVITY and MATISSE) Compact (no water cooling) Six-slot (with water cooling)

13. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 NGC interface to other systems The NGC controller provides a direct interface to the SPARTA and VxWorks based Power PC systems. NGC RTD NGC DCS GUI SPARTA RTD Needed for GRAVITY, GRAAL, GALACSI instruments

14. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 NGC, New General detector Controller The NGC controller is a modular, customizable system AQ-32ch module 10 MHz Transition module Backplane FEB module MID-IR NIR Visible Visible WFS

15. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 LLCU NGC, New General detector Controller  Just like “Lego” blocks we can combine different modules to cover our needs. PCIexpress Fiber cable Video interface boardBasic interface board Basic board Video board-10MHz Power supply box Power supply cable A system like this has been using to readout the SAPHIRA detector of the GRAVITY instrument A system like this has been using to readout the SAPHIRA detector of the GRAVITY instrument

16. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 NGC, New General detector Controller  Just like “Lego” blocks we can combine different modules to cover our needs. MUSE I MUSE II MUSE IIIMUSE IV MUSE NGC system readouts 24 CCD detectors simultaneously MUSE NGC system readouts 24 CCD detectors simultaneously

17. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 Status of the NGC  NGC systems are already being used by many instruments  Since 2012 also operational at the telescopes. GRAVITY SPHEREMUSE Visible AQUARIUS MID-IR NIR SAPHIRA NIR WFS MATISSE MID-IR NIR VISIR NGC Visible NIR Visible WFS GALACSI / GRAAL AO

18. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 Summary  ESO has a long history of developing and maintaining its own controller, one of the reasons behind NGC success  The NGC is now in routine operation at the VLT and has reached a very high level of maturity  It is very adaptable and continues to meet all instrumentation needs  With the SCI-NGC and AO-NGC combinations, ESO is able to readout any type of detector  Having the NGC as a uniform controller platform at the observatory, we have an extremely useful and maintenance friendly systems on the mountain.  With further development the NGC will meet the requirements of detectors for the ELT

19. Instrument Control System Seminar, 20 th -24 th October 2014 Thank you very much for your attention