Technical Meeting #3: Software requirements and conceptual design

This meeting took place at 13:30 on Friday 14 May, in the Ryle Seminar Room.

Agenda

• FTT/NAS & FLC Software Requirements
• Next steps leading to a conceptual software architecture

Discussion Slides

Slides as PDF

Conclusions

• Very preliminary power budget is as follows:
  • Camera cooling 100W
  • Computing 150W
  • Note: once technical interchange begins need to query actual limits on electrical power available, allowed dissipation within electronics cabinets, and allowed dissipation to chilled fluid being used for electronics cabinets
• A single "standard" computer could run all of the FTT/NA software (under Xenomai)
• However, cable length restrictions could force us to use a 2nd low-power computer near to the Andor camera
  • This would require a 2nd temperature-controlled enclosure, so best avoided
  • Once technical interchange begins need to query cable routing and whether a dedicated short cable tray can be installed from Q5 to near the camera, to allow use of 1 computer only
• JSY suggested GUI could be a separate application that is started and stopped independently
• EBS prefers C (with threads) ISS interface framework
  • Need to think about what combinations of commands might run concurrently and what thread-safety strategy to employ

Task Assignments

• JSY: Define software components and inter-component dataflows (hardware-independent)
• JSY: Ask Chris Mayer for field rotation rate
• EBS: Look for 1U or 2U computers with 2 PCI slots drawing < 150W
• DFB (TBC): Write down initial latency and frame rate requirements with brief justification