MCE firmware

Critical Notes

• MCE firmware-load bug: In v5+ firmware, if you update firmware on any readout card, the card doesn't reply to any command unless the Clock Card is also reprogrammed.

• Always cleanly reset the MCE after a power-up or a reconfiguration! If not, MCE communication with the PC or Sync Box may not work.

> mce_reset_clean

• After an mce_reset, not all of the DAC outputs are set to zero. In addition, values written to RAM-based registers are not reset. A full reconfiguration is required for a proper reset. You may power-cycle the MCE remotely if the MCE is equipped with a PSA (UBC switching supply) by issuing:

> rs psc cycle_pow 1
> mce_reset_clean

Releases

All firmware can be downloaded here Release notes for each firmware release can be found below:

• Clock Card (CC)
• Readout Card (RC) Rev. A/B (Stratix I)
• Readout Card (RC) Rev. C/D (Stratix III)
• Bias Card (BC)
• Address Card (AC)
• Power-Supply Unit Controller (PSUC) Rev. 1
• Power-Supply Unit Controller (PSUC) Rev. 2
• Sync Box Firmware

• Compatible Versions (CC,RC,BC,AC) . (Lists of versions of firmware to use together.)

Firmware Upgrade Methods

• Using Altera supplied Hardware/Software
  • USB Blaster
  • Quartus II Installation
  • Ethernet Blaster
• Remote firmware update over the MCE fibre interface
  • Firmware Downloads and .Jam-File Generation
  • Generating .JAM Files For Remote Update
  • Sof2jam (bash script)
  • Generating .Jam-Files Manually

CVS Repository

• Ask the "MCE team at UBC" for a username/password to be able to access the repository
• Install a CVS client ( e.g. http://www.tortoisecvs.org/ )
• CVS server info is:
  • server: e-mode.phas.ubc.ca
  • repository folder:/home/cvsroot/mce
  • module name: mce
  • protocol: pserver

MCE Features and How-To Guides

• MCE Commands
• Upgrading From 4.x.x To 5.x.x Firmware -- using SCUBA-2 as an example

• Data Acquisition
  • Fast Data Acquisition -- i.e. up to the frame rate
  • The STOP Command (CC v4.0.b, v4.0.c, v5.0.1+)
  • How to Configure Which Readout Cards Report Data (CC v4.0.a+)
  • How to Read a Column at the Frame Rate (CC v5.0.0 & RC v5.0.0+)
  • Rectangle Mode Data (CC v5.0.0 & RC v5.0.1+)

• Readout Card
  • Data Modes
  • Filtered Data & the Digital 4-pole Butterworth Low-pass Filter
  • Raw 50 MHz Data
  • Flux Jumping
  • FSFB Clamping Commands -- to prevent unlocked pixels from ramping (RC v5.0.a+)
  • FSFB Servo Start Value

• Address Card
  • Fast SQ2 Feedback and TES Biasing with an Address Card

• Clock Card
  • Remote Firmware Update (CC v5.0.7+)
  • Internal Commands
    • Arbitrary Waveform Generator -- for maximum length sequences and complex impedance measurements (CC v5.0.3+)
    • Ramp Generator
    • Temperature monitoring

MCE Firmware Bugs/ Features Under Development has been moved to the Internal MCE Wiki Bug List.

Development Tools

• Quartus II Installation
• ModelSim SE Installation (from scratch)
• CVS Firmware Repository
• JAM Player
• JRunner

• SVN links (We decided (sadly) NOT to migrate from CVS to SVN, if we ever do here is some information:)

SVN Manual

Accessing the SVN Repository

SVN Commit Guidelines

SVN Basic Operations

Tagging

Merging

Branching

Resurrecting Deleted Items

MCE Scripting

• [[ http://e-mode.phas.ubc.ca/mcewiki/index.php/MAS MAS ]]
• MAS Cheat Sheet
• Using Python to Automate MAS
• MCE: Helper programs