Modernization of the NASA IRTF Telescope Control System

Eric J. Pilger; James V. Harwood; Peter M. Onaka

doi:10.1117/12.176793

1 June 1994 Modernization of the NASA IRTF Telescope Control System

Eric J. Pilger, James V. Harwood, Peter M. Onaka

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 2198, Instrumentation in Astronomy VIII; (1994) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.176793
Event: 1994 Symposium on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation for the 21st Century, 1994, Kailua, Kona, HI, United States

Abstract

We describe the ongoing modernization of the NASA IR Telescope Facility Telescope Control System. A major mandate of this project is to keep the telescope available for observations throughout. Therefore, we have developed an incremental plan that will allow us to replace components of the software and hardware without shutting down the system. The current system, running under FORTH on a DEC LSI 11/23 minicomputer interfaced to a Bus and boards developed in house, will be replaced with a combination of a Sun SPARCstation running SunOS, a MicroSPARC based Single Board Computer running LynxOS, and various intelligent VME based peripheral cards. The software is based on a design philosophy originally developed by Pat Wallace for use on the Anglo Australian Telescope. This philosophy has gained wide acceptance, and is currently used in a number of observatories around the world. A key element of this philosophy is the division of the TCS into `Virtual' and `Real' parts. This will allow us to replace the higher level functions of the TCS with software running on the Sun, while still relying on the LSI 11/23 for performance of the lower level functions. Eventual transfer of lower level functions to the MicroSPARC system will then proceed incrementally through use of a Q-Bus to VME-Bus converter.

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Eric J. Pilger, James V. Harwood, and Peter M. Onaka "Modernization of the NASA IRTF Telescope Control System", Proc. SPIE 2198, Instrumentation in Astronomy VIII, (1 June 1994); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.176793

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