IPP Annual Report 2007 - Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik ...

Additionally all incoming electronic mail is scanned for
viruses and only clean and unobjectionable data (based on
known problems) will be passed to the internal network, the
rest gets quarantined. Spam mail marking is also active.
Based on a level of probability users can define and set filter
threshold values at their PC’s email client. In addition the
individual activation of “greylisting” drastically reduces the
incoming of unwanted emails.
After having successfully renovated the old building of the
computer center, a very flexible passive network structure
with fixed and hidden loose cables has been installed. The
active part of the data network is made up of a state-of-theart
high-performance switch-router Foundry MLX, where
all the supercomputer and server nodes get attached with the
highest performance available. The coupling of the new
BlueGene/P system with the storage subsystems was accomplished
with a 10-Gigabit-only Force10-E600 switch-router.
Data Acquisition and Data Bases for Plasma Fusion
Experiments
The main task of the XDV group at the computer center in
Garching is to develop the data acquisition and data storage
system for the W7-X experiment in Greifswald. This work
is done in close cooperation with the experiment control
group, the data analysis group as well as the diagnostic and
physics department.
The scheduling of the long discharges of W7X will be done by
predefining operational parameters in segments and scenarios.
Segments are valid for a certain amount of time and a scenario
is a fixed sequence of segments with a special physical background.
These segments contain very detailed but necessary
information for the hardware and software to operate the discharge.
Apart from the technical view of the segments the
experiment leader or physicist needs a more physical view to
the discharge description. Therefore an abstraction layer was
introduced that only shows physically interesting information
(high-level parameters). An executable segment will be generated
after verifying the consistency of these high-level parameters
by using a transformation function for every technical
parameter involved. The definition of the necessary structures
and interfaces is finished and by the end of 2007 some sample
implementations of transformation functions have been
available. The implementation of object life cycles, object
states and user access rights on objects is completed. The
package is used by the editors to visualize object properties
and to handle access to objects in a safe and consistent way.
By the end of 2007 the generic editor (Confix) for the structures
in the data base has reached its intended functionality.
The Confix editor works on all kind of objects in the data base
and can only safely be used by an experienced user who knows
about the structure and the object relations. The physicists
need much simpler and more specialized editors for defining
Computer Center Garching
98
configurations, segments and scenarios. The introduction of
the physics abstraction layer with the high-level parameters
is the basis for these editors and reduces the information presented
to the user considerably. At the moment two editors are
in development and first versions with basic functionality
are already available. The group configuration editor is used
to edit and define the description of components containing
several control stations (fast control stations and data acquisition
stations). It handles stations, the communication description
necessary to operate the stations as well as the
definition of the high-level parameters and the corresponding
transformation functions. The segment editor has all the features
to handle segment descriptions for components and
projects. If not specified differently all high-level parameters
are displayed in a standard way. If anything is changed, the
segments may be saved and by using the specified transformation
function, translated to the technical description used
for machine operation. Both editors use the life cycle package
to handle access rights and segment states correctly.
The implementation of the complete control and data acquisition
system of W7X on the already existing and simpler
WEGA device reaches its first milestone at the beginning of
2008. The control and data acquisition will then be replaced
by the new system. At the moment the first test runs are
accomplished and show promising results. Continuing tests
will also incorporate physicists of W7-X to show the efficiency
of the user interfaces and structures.
Initiated by the ASDEX-Upgrade CODAC (Control and Data
Acquisition) team, a new standard data acquisition station
was defined and constructed. Based on the serial optical link
(Hotlink standard) and a proprietary backplane defined locally,
several remotely available ADCs of various sample speeds
can be connected to any standard computers equipped with
PCI or Compact PCI slots. This solution allows the build-up
of data acquisition systems with a large number of channels.
Staff
A. Altbauer, G. Bacmeister, V. Bludov, G. Bronold, R. Bruckschen,
J. Daschner, K. Desinger, R. Dohmen, R. Eisert * , I. Fischer,
S. Groß * , K. Gross, C. Guggenberger, A. Hackl, C. Hanitsch,
C. Hanke, R. Hatzky, S. Heinzel, F. Hinterland, M. Kölbl,
G. Kühner * , H. Lederer, K. Lehnberger, J. Mejia, K. Näckel * ,
W. Nagel, M. Panea-Doblado, F. Paulus, A. Porter-Sborowski,
M. Rampp, J. Reetz, H. Reuter, K. Ritter, S. Sagawe * ,
R. Schmid, A. Schmidt, H. Schürmann * , J. Schuster,
U. Schwenn, T. Soddemann, R. Tišma, S. Valet * , I. Weidl.
Data Acquisition Group: T. Bluhm * , P. Heimann, C. Hennig * ,
G. Kühner * , J. Maier, Ch. Meyer, H. Riemann * , M. Zilker.
* IPP Greifswald