Real time management of the AD Schottky/BTF beam measurement system

The AD Schottky and BTF system relies on rapid acquisition and analysis of beam quantisation noise during the AD cycle which is based on an embedded receiver and digital signal processing board hosted in a VME system. The software running in the VME sets up the embedded system and amplifiers, interfaces to the RF and control system, manages the execution speed and sequence constraints with respect to the various operating modes, schedules measurements during the AD cycle and performs post processing taking into account the beam conditions in an autonomous way. The operating modes of the instrument dynamically depend on a detailed configuration, the beam parameters during the AD cycle and optional user interaction. Various subsets of the processed data are available on line and in quasi real time for beam intensity, momentum spread and several spectrum types, which form an important part of AD operation today.