Instrument control infrastructure Documentation

Computing platforms and operating systems

The computing platforms of choice for new software development projects are VxWorks, running VxWorks Version 5.1 or later; and Sun SPARC, running Solaris 2.5 or later.

VxWorks is used for instrument control and real-time applications. Solaris is generally used for high-level control applications and user interface software.

The is no a priori restriction to developing control systems driven from Solaris by serial links or Sbus cards, depending upon the simplicity of the application. Here, the judgement must be driven by considerations of performance, maintainability and long-term supportability, with bespoke hardware solutions being the least favoured.