IOxOS SA

2017

IOxOS Technologies provides ESS with a modular and long-term available hardware platform for its Control System

IOXOS Technologies in partnership with the Paul Scherrer Institute, has used its expertise and proven experience in the development of distributed real-time control systems for high energy physics to provide a long-lasting modular hardware platform for the European Spallation Source accelerator control system. The collaboration with the European Spallation Source and the Paul Scherrer Institute has allowed IOxOS Technologies to consolidate its position as a reliable solution provider to high energy physics laboratories, and enabled the company to pursue new opportunities to implement control solutions for other research facilities.

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is one of the largest science and technology infrastructure projects being built in Europe today. The facility design and construction includes the most powerful linear proton accelerator ever built. The high energy proton beam from the linear accelerator strikes a tungsten target wheel releasing neutrons for use in materials and life science research.

IOxOS Technologies, in partnership with the Paul Scherrer Institute, has used its expertise and proven experience in the development of distributed real-time control systems for high energy physics to provide a long-lasting modular hardware platform for the ESS accelerator control system.

Development and integration collaboration

The synchronization and day-to-day running of all the equipment responsible for the production of neutrons at the ESS is under the responsibility of the Integrated Control System (ICS) division.

In 2016, ICS started a collaboration with IOxOS Technologies and the Paul Scherrer Institute for the development and integration of a new electronic platform for the ESS Control System. The resulting electronic platform targets several applications at the ESS Control System, including RF control systems, beam position monitors and several safety interlock systems.

A complete control ecosystem

IOxOS Technologies developed a complete ecosystem to fulfill ESS control system requirements. The form factor selected for the ESS was the MicroTCA.4, an enhancement of the MicroTCA open standard targeting demanding applications in large-scale research facilities.

One of the strengths of this ecosystem is that most of the core components have already been qualified and deployed in similar control applications in research institutes such as the Institute Laue-Langevin (France), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK), the ALBA Synchrotron (Spain) and the Paul Scherrer Institute.

IOxOS Technologies developed a product line of MicroTCA.4 modules with key components selected in order to minimize the risk of obsolescence and ensure long-term availability. The use of FPGAs within the hardware guarantees a high degree of customization, reuse and performance, while providing a significant protection against obsolescence. A comprehensive family of modules implementing the high speed analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue functions needed for data acquisition was also developed.

The product lines are designed to have fast integration within EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control Systems) the software environment used to operate the control system at the ESS. Through the support of the Paul Scherrer Institute, a growing range of open source software tools, libraries and applications is available to support the physics community in the development of efficient distributed real-time platforms for precision instrumentation and state-of-the-art accelerator control systems.

Business development

The collaboration with the ESS and the Paul Scherrer Institute has made possible the development of a complete MicroTCA ecosystem that perfectly complements both the business strategy and the existing range of products of IOxOS Technologies.

It has allowed IOxOS Technologies to consolidate its position as a reliable solution provider to high energy physics laboratories, and enabled the company to pursue new opportunities to implement control solutions for other research facilities.

About IOXOS TECHNOLOGIES

IOxOS Technologies, founded in 2007 in Gland (Switzerland), is an electronic design company offering innovative solutions to system integrators in the High Energy Physics, Mil/Aero and Transport industries. It combines its hardware design expertise with engineering, consulting and training services covering both hardware and software with the aim of fulfilling the customer requirements from the initial specification to the final implementation, validation, verification and system integration. IOxOS Technologies offers a comprehensive line of PCI Express based products including IP Cores, FPGA based System on Chip (SoC) and Network on Chip (NoC) solutions, FPGA design kits and board design, all of them targeting the most extended form factors in the industry (MicroTCA.4, VME64x, PXI and VXI, among others). Flexibility, reliability, long-term availability and performance are the common factor of these products.

Iván García-Alfonso
Business Development Manager
IOxOS Technologies SA
Gland, Switzerland
ivan.garcia[@]ioxos.ch
ioxos.ch

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