Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Basovizza, Italy
The control system architecture of modern experimental physics facilities needs to meet the requirements of the ever increasing complexity of the controlled devices. Whenever feasible, moving from a distributed architecture based on powerful but complex and expensive computers to an even more pervasive approach based on simple and cheap embedded systems, allows shifting the knowledge close to the devices. The BeagleBone computer, being capable of running a full featured operating system such as GNU/Linux, integrates effectively into the existing control systems and allows executing complex control functions with the required flexibility. The paper discusses the choice of the BeagleBone as embedded platform and reports some examples of control applications recently developed for the ELETTRA and FERMI@Elettra light sources.
