KEYWORDS: Field programmable gate arrays, Spectrographs, Control systems design, Network on a chip, Bridges, Control systems, Clocks, Telescopes, Astronomy, Astronomical imaging
At present, FPGA-based SOPC was used to design the China's LAMOST telescope spectrograph control system. But
with the increase of the controlled objects and requirement of telescope’s accuracy, the problems like system
performance, I/O source shortage, real-time multi-task processing, Fmax, Logic Element (LE) Usage have to be solved
immediately. The combination of multi-processor (NIOS II) method and NOC technology can meet this requirement
effectively. This article mainly introduced how to realize the NOC-based MPSOC in the Altera’s Cyclone III FPGA
experimental board by Qsys tool. According to the function of task, the system was divided into several subsystems
which also include two NIOS II CPU subsystems (implement the control strategies and remote update tasks separately).
These different subsystems are interconnected by NOC hierarchical interconnection idea. The results illustrate that this
solution can improve system performance, double the Fmax, decrease LE usage, and save the maintenance cost
compared with the previous SOPC-based approach. The motor control system designed by this approach also can be
applied to other astronomy equipments and industrial control fields.
The China-made telescope, LAMOST, consists of 16 Spectrographs to detect stellar spectra via 4000 optical fibers. In
each spectroscope, many movable parts work in phase. Those parts are real-time controlled and managed by field
controllers based on FPGA. The master control board of controllers currently being used is constructed by Altera's
Cyclone II Development Kit. However, now Altera no longer produce such Kits. As the needs for maintenance and
improvement, a backup control board is developed, so that once any field controller is broken, another can changed in
time to ensure the control system not being interrupted. Using the newer Altera FPGA chip 3C40 as master control chip
can minimize the change in the original design frame of the control structure so as to reduce the workload of software
and hardware migration.
This paper describes the design process of the Spectrographs backup field controller based on Cyclone 3C40 and gives
the problems and solutions encountered during migration for controller hardware and software. The improved field
controller not only retains the original controller functions, but also can serve for more motors and sensors due to the
increase of input and output pins. Besides, no commodity supply limits, which saves expenses. The FPGA-field
controller can also be used in other telescopes, astronomical instruments and industrial control systems as well.
KEYWORDS: Digital signal processing, Control systems, Field programmable gate arrays, Control systems design, Simulink, Computer programming, Astronomy, Optical encoders, MATLAB, Spectroscopy
The China-made telescope, LAMOST, consists of 16 spectroscopes to detect stellar spectra via 4000 optical fibers. In
each spectroscope, many movable parts work in phase. Those parts are real-time controlled and managed by field
controllers based on FPGA. This paper mainly introduces how to use DSP Builder module library in MATLAB /
Simulink to construct the IP control core on FPGA chip. This method can also be used to design the control core of PID
arithmetic, to carry out arithmetic simulation and generate VHDL language file, as well as to integrate it into SOPC
developing environment so as to repeatedly use. In this way, the design period of the control system may be shortened
and design process simplified. Finally due to the reversibility and programmability of the IP control core ,a system on a
chip for field controllers of spectroscope is realized, which meets astronomical control requirements, providing an
effective scheme for embedded system in astronomical instrument applications.
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