Overview and Strategy

Introduction

The Control Systems of ITER are divided into three main categories:

• PLCs: Slow processing (latency between 10 ms and 100 ms) and multiple+local I/O

• Fast Controllers (PC): High processing capabilities, high bandwidth, medium latency (between 100 us and 10 ms) and local I/O

The HotRIO Control Systems are meant to provide solutions where lower latency (between 10 us and sub-us) and high bandwith (up to 1 Gbps) are required and also, where a high number of distributed or local IOs (hundreds) are needed.

The main features of a HotRIO Control system are:

• FPGA processors boards with adaptable processing capabilities: Medium (Lattice FPGA) or Large (Xilinx FPGA)

• Low latency and high bandwidth communications with timing capabilities through specific protocol based on fiber 1GbE physical layer (HotRIO Protocol)

• Distributed, Remote and Local IO Capabilities: ADCs, DACs, DIO (fiber and copper)

• Modular and Flexible:

  • Several expansion IO boards connected to the same FPGA through the backplane

  • Several FPGA boards connected in daisy chain through fiber