Software for beam diagnostics front-end systems: synchronization and implementation issues

Front-end software systems used for beam diagnostics at CERN´s PS accelerator complex perform control and data acquisition of local hardware components in synchronization with specific accelerator events. The principal part of the software is generally hosted in a VME crate, which drives all system components, provides interactivity with the general controls environment through networking and decouples the networking layer from the machine layer. Using three real-world examples of operational instrumentation systems, namely the beam intensity measurement between the PS-Booster and the PS, the AD Coherent Oscillations measurement and the PS Closed-Orbit Synchronization, the paper describes their synchronization to accelerator events and states. Sometimes these instrumentation systems am subject to complex real-time constraints and external conditions. The strategies to meet these requirements in the real-time software are discussed in the context of the general design and implementation in the PS control system environment