Inside Diamond Light Source, the UK's synchrotron facility

Java is one layer of the software stack used at Diamond, along with familiar technologies such as OSGi, Spring and AMQ.  The systems using open source tools using EPICS ( C, C++) and Linux and is one of the largest applications of these tools in the world, providing 2 million control and monitoring points to operate the facility.

The machine produces beams of intense photons, known in particle physics as a beam line, which are focused and intensified and routed to experimental stations.

Challenges triggering detectors to coincide with movements and X-rays on the beamline has led to Diamond developing custom hardware, such as the ‘Panda’ system pictured above.