Distributed Signal Multiplexor at Fermilab
Charles Briegel
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
A set of 1 GHz multiplexors are distributed at remote locations which enable
signals to be routed to a variety of instrumentation equipment. The commercial
multiplexor provides up to 20 1X4 switches per location and can be controlled
via GPIB.
Control of the multiplexors utilizes MOOC (Minimal Object Oriented
Communications) which provides the skeleton software for communication to an
application program. The control of a route across distributed multiplexors
can be effected by turning "ON" a device. The route has various mechanisms for
reserving or acquiring the ownership of the muxes which make up the signal's
route. The aplication and front-end software implementation is described.
The hardware consists of a VME crate, a 68040 processor running vxWorks
operating system, and GPIB interfaces including transparent support of a remote
GPIB connected via Ethernet to the front-end computer.