EPICS DATA AQUISITION DEVICE SUPPORT

Every control system has to deal with a large number of input/output devices which offer a similar kind of capabilities. For example, all data acquisition (DAQ) device offer sampling at some rate, which in many cases is configurable. If each such device were to have a different interface, engineers using them would need to be familiar with each device specifically, requiring more time for familiarization, inhibiting transfer of know-how from working with one device to another and increasing the chance of engineering errors due to a miscomprehension or incorrect assumptions, which brings forth integration, maintenance and upgrading (replacement) issues. Also, implementation of device’s interfaces would be more costly than necessary, as for every type of device a whole set of documentation (interface definition, requirements specification, test plans, etc.) would need to be produced. Here, an attempt to standardize such interfaces and address the mentioned issues is described. Nominal Device Model (NDM) is a model which proposes to standardize the EPICS [1] interface of analog and digital input and output devices, as well as image acquisition devices (cameras).