From: C.Cumani
                                                           Date: 2003/03/11


             VLT-SW-APR2003 - RELEASE NOTES FOR FCD (FIERASW)
             ================================================


                            !!! ATTENTION !!!

              1) After the installation of the new FIERASW,
                 THE FIERA DATABASE MUST BE REGENERATED !!!

              2) Start the database on the FIERA SPARC always
                 AFTER the one on the Instrument Workstation
                 (otherwise we have experienced problems
                 with the Scan System)



READ THIS:
==========

With this release, the SLCU part of the FIERA Software has been ported
on the new platforms used by the SLCU of the FIERA CCD controller,
i.e. UltraSparc with PCIbus.

The SLCU part of this release of the FIERA Software can NOT run on the old
platforms used by the SLCU of the FIERA CCD controller, i.e. the SPARC20
with VMEbus.

These are the configurations which have been tested:

1) New FIERAs:
   - Instrument workstation with VLTSW-APR2003
   - FIERA SLCU (UltraSparc with PCIbus) with VLTSW-APR2003

2) Old FIERAs:
   - Instrument workstation with VLTSW-APR2003
   - FIERA SLCU (SPARC20 with VMEbus) with VLTSW-MAR2002, and the
     FIERASW defined by fcdarch 2.90 on the top of it.

Note: the configuration of the new SLCU of the FIERA CCD controller
(i.e. the UltraSparc with PCIbus) will be described in the new version
of the FIERA Maintenance Manual, VLT-SPE-ESO-13640-1707



OTHER INFO:
===========

The major changes (with respect to MAR2002) are:

A) CODE/PLATFORM:
- The FIERASW has been ported to the new platforms which are used by FIERA,
  i.e. UltraSparc with PCIbus and Solaris 2.8 (the old Sparc20 are obsolete
  and do not support Solaris 2.8) 
- In addition, the code has been modified also to be compiled by the new
  "VLT-standard" compiler gcc 3.2.


B) FEATURES:
- FITS files are now created using one extension per chip (instead of one
  extension per output, as it was before), without extension if the
  instrument has only one chip and no double windowing is performed.
  See the Data Interface Control Document, GEN-SPE-ESO-19940-794/2.0
  as of paragraph 3.1, following guidelines 1, 2 and 3.
  See also SPR VLTSW20000327.
- Fixed problem of RTAPENV to be closed and restarted after a SPARC reboot,
  in order to avoid to have FIERA hanging at the second exposure (problem
  related to the RTD: see FIERASW-SPR VLTSW20020445 and RTD-SPR VLTSW20020523)
- FIERASW tested on Linux on the VLT Test Camera (see SPR VLTSW20010636)


Other minor modifications (with respect to MAR2002):
- Telemetry values are reported as FITS logs in logMonitor (see SPR
  VLTSW20020456)
- Shutter open/close values are reported as FITS logs in logMonitor (see SPR
  VLTSW20020426)


C) NO MORE SUPPORTED
- The old FITS formats "without image extension" and
  "with image extension per output" are no more supported
  (see Data Interface Control Document, GEN-SPE-ESO-19940-794/2.0)
- The possibility to send "one image of <N>" from the Detector
  Electronics to the SLCU Sparc (provided by the VMEbus "Jens Benner"
  Board) is no more supported on the new PCIbus system.


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