SciSim v2.0.3 is a bug fix release of SciSim and contains only minor changes compared to v2.0.2. The input (configuration & data) files, as well as the ODF products are compatible with previous versions.

• Update ODF files

The ODF converters have been updated to comply with the ODF ICD 2.0.

Unknown fields were flagged with dummy values outside the valid range (e.g. "-1"). This approach appeared to be a rathher unfortunate solution, because the SciSim products could not be used as input to the SAS package.
Currently, those fields that cannot be filled by using the camera output, will now contain dummy -but meaningless- values.

DATE-OBS; An arbitrary starting date of the observation is used. The exposure time is added to this field in order to get a valid entry for DATE-END.

Furthermore, the auxilary files contain information about all ccds (and not only those that produced at least one frame).

MOS FITS files:

• In WINDOWX0, WINDOWY0, WINDOWDX, WINDOWDY  the off-set due to under-scan of pixels is incorporated.
• EDUID is currently coupled to ccd id. In principle there are eight EDUs that can be connected to the read-out of the 7 ccds (note the central ccd may be read out by two nodes). But the current implementation does not allow these EDUs to be selected.
• EMDHLOW,EMDHHIGH are set to 0 and 32767 respectively
• GATTIFLG is set to 1 (now correction signal is added).
• FIFOOVF is set to 0 (no events lost in data output).
• FTCOARSE wraps around a 15 bit integer (unsigned).
• FTFINE is in units of 40 micro-seconds.


PN FITS files:

• When running in a "small" or "large" window mode, the pixel coordinates of an event are now reported in image coordinates (was window coordinates).
• Iterpretation of Quadrant and CCD numbering has changed (see also the ESIM documentation in the SciSim User Guide).


RFC FITS files:

• In WINDOWX0, WINDOWY0, WINDOWDX, WINDOWDY  the on-chip binning is incorporated.
• In Spectroscopy mode SCITYPE is set to "3", if single-event reconstruction is used.
• Sequential information in the auxilary file is filled (binary extention table 2).
• Frame counter is reported sequentially (and not for each ccd separately).
• The two-node read-out is integrated into one frame.

• Upgrade to use gcc 2.8.1(and egcs 1.0.2)

Changes have been made to the SciSim source files, in order to compile with the latest GNU compilers, gcc 2.8.1. The libg++ library -on which SciSim depends- is no longer part of the compiler, but can be retrieved separately.

Note: do not use the "-O2" option when using gcc 2.8.1, because of an internal compiler bug.
 

• Port to Linux distribution RedHat 5.1

Due to several reasons, our Linux platforms have been ported to RedHat 5.1. As a result several changes have been made to the source files of SciSim in order to work with the latest compilers (egcs 1.0.2 and gcc 2.8.1) and shared libraries.
 
• Upgrade to use Qt 1.40

SciSim is now using the Qt library 1.40
 
• Upgrade to use cfitsio 1.42

This made the inclusion of both libfitsio and libcfitsio redundant.
 
• Upgrade to use latex2html 98.1p1

Changes have been made to the documentation in order to compile with the latest version of latex2html
 
• Bug fix of on-line help

The broken URL of the on-line help has been fixed.
 
• Bug fix of OSIM ODF converter

"oodf" could not find its data files.
 
• Bug fix of ESIM MOS Fast Mode

In this mode, ESIM was not producing any events.
 
• Bug fix of Catalogues processing

The scripts, needed to pre-process the Catalogues,were not included in the binary distribution.
 
• Updated pixel coordinates in the ODF

Pixel coordinates follow the current status quo.
Total number of pixels above threshold is calculated
 
• CCD numbering of PN

The conversion of CCD number to "quadrant" id and "ccd" id in the PN ODF converter was out of sink with EPIC-EST-SP-005
 
• Additional telescope configurations

Additional configurations are added for the three telescope configurations. They can be loaded:
• in the "File" menu of the SciSim gui
• on the command line; e.g. rgasim -c telescope1_config
• Update of configuration and data-files

A new scatter algorithm has been implemented (courtesy Chrsitian Erd), along with some new data files.
The following README files specify the changes in the data-files and in the configuration file:
• config/README
• data/esim/README
• data/rsim/README

SPR fixes implemented in this release:

232 : cameras need to output ccd sequence
336 : EPIC MOS auxiliary file
338 : Definition of WINDOWDX in the ODF generator
339 : Extension R1AUX2 of the RGS ODF generator not filled
346 : EPIC pn overall CCD numbering
349 : scisim pn output cannot be used "as is"
354 : Incorrect information in podf output fits headers
358 : SER flag
359 : Order of command-line input, position of input to override config data
360 : SCITYPE keyword in outut ODF (rodf)
361 : Online help URL link broken
362 : Overflow of DATE-END entry in *odf output fits header
363 : Osim ODF converter cannot find its data files
364 : Cannot make HTML documentation with latex2html 98.1p1
367 : Cannot process catalogues for usage in SciSim
368 : No events in output of esim when using MOS-Fast Mode
369 : Duplicate entries in the RGS AUX ODF
370 : ESIM MOS/PN pixel coordinates in PRIME mode
371 : Problem with 5x5 patterns in esim/data/mos_patterns.dat
373 : Default configuration file for in-flight telescope chains
374 : Show extent of RGS FOV
375 : RGS FOV: Cross dispersion width incorrect
376 : EXTNAME