The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a set of open-source software tools you can use to develop large, distributed control systems.

EPICS systems use the Channel Access (CA) network protocol to pass data between Channel Access clients (CACs) and Channel Access servers (CASs). The CA network protocol is a TCP/IP-based protocol.

Typically, a CAS contains multiple Process Variables (PVs). A PV represents a single value within a server and is the primary object of the CA network protocol. You can use CACs to read, write, or subscribe to PVs in an EPICS system.

In LabVIEW, you can create the following types of EPICS I/O servers:

  • EPICS Client I/O servers—Create an EPICS Client I/O server, which is a CAC, to monitor and update PVs on an EPICS network.
  • EPICS Server I/O servers—Create an EPICS Server I/O server, which is a CAS, to publish shared variables and CompactRIO I/O Variables (IOVs) to an EPICS network. You can create VIs to manage hardware I/Os and process data for the EPICS Server I/O server. You need to install the LabVIEW Real-Time Module to publish CompactRIO IOVs.
    • Note EPICS also refers to the architecture of such systems, as well as to the collaboration group developing the related tools. Refer to the Argonne National Laboratory web site for more information about EPICS and to download the latest version of EPICS.

    Refer to the Interactively Configuring EPICS I/O Servers article on the manufacturer's web site for more information about how to interactively configure both EPICS Client I/O servers and EPICS Server I/O servers in LabVIEW.