Speaker
Description
An accelerator complex relies on many key systems of which the power converter complex at CERN is a large component. Modern systems rely on software and firmware which is periodically updated. Accelerator reliability requires good management of this deployment and the pre deployment detection of regression.
A system which takes modern software engineering techniques such as continuous integration and continuous development and applies these to power converter hardware is presented. This system uses a real time hardware in the loop device to emulate a wide range of power converters allowing new code to be tested with a high coverage of power converters, loads and scenarios. This ensures that there is no regression which would later be found in the accelerator resulting in down time. While these system testing methodologies are demonstrated in the context of power converters, they could be applied to other systems in an accelerator.
