Electronics Design & Low level software (EDL)
The EDL section is responsible for the development and support of a collection of general-purpose electronic modules for controls and data acquisition. It also provides know-how for the technical choice of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) modules to suit the needs of equipment groups in the Accelerator Sector. Both the custom developments and the selected off-the-shelf modules make up the BE-CEM-EDL standard hardware kit, for which the section provides full support. Many of the hardware designs of the section are hosted in the Open Hardware Repository, a place on the web for collaborative electronics design.
The section is also in charge of the development and support of low-level software for the control of the electronic modules under its responsibility. This software comes mainly in the form of Linux device drivers, C/C++ libraries and associated test programs. In addition BE-CEM-EDL will become responsible for the Linux image running in FECs and some SoCs in the near future.
BE-CEM-EDL has gathered extensive experience in a number of areas, for which it offers support to other hardware and low-level software developers in the Accelerator Sector:
* HDL development and verification for FPGAs, including soft CPU cores supported by standard C development tools.
* Linux device driver development and the Linux kernel in general.
* Design of networking and synchronisation solutions.
* Design of systems based on standardised electronic modules such as PCI/PCIe/PXIe, uTCA and VME.
* Electronics for motion control.
Finally, the section also has an important outreach activity, advocating the use of free-as-in-freedom solutions for software, firmware, gateware and hardware. This includes strong interaction with the Knowledge Transfer group, such as for the drafting of the CERN Open Hardware Licence.