An RT-XSG model can be accessed with application-specific RT-LAB blocks from the OPAL-RT I/O library.

These blocks perform all the required data scaling and packaging to control the different analog and digital interface blocks in the RT-XSG model. The CONF file is a text-based file giving the I/O type, count and location related to each DataIn and DataOut port accessed by the RT-LAB blocks (the figure below presents a sample file). The CONF file must be supplied to the RT-LAB model along with the FPGA configuration file (BIN file), with the same file name except for the extension.

When is a CONF File Required?

The CONF file is required only if the developer wants to access the signals using the application-specific blocks from the OPAL-RT I/O library. It is not required if the signals are interfaced through the lower-level DataIN Send and DataOUT Recv blocks, for which data scaling and packaging are designed manually by the developer.

Supported Reconfigurable Hardware

The use of application-specific OPAL-RT I/O blocks through a CONF file is compatible with all FPGAs supported by RT-XSG.

Analog and Digital Signal Types Supported in the CONF File

The signal types described below can be referenced by the CONF file so that the OPAL-RT I/O blocks are able to scale and package the communication signals correctly. It is also possible to design custom I/O blocks that would use additional custom reserved signal names referenced by the CONF file.

CONF File supported signal types

Groups, Sections, and Subsections

In order to facilitate identification, I/O lines of OPAL-RT TECHNOLOGIES hardware are organized in groups, sections, and subsections.

A group (also named slot on some platforms) corresponds to a specific position of digital or analog hardware interface inside the OPAL-RT TECHNOLOGIES chassis. Each group consists typically of two I/O mezzanine cards, sometimes referred to as sections, and labeled A and B. Each section is broken down into subsections of eight channels each.

The number of available groups depends on the chassis type, and the number of subsections composing each section of the group depends on the hardware that is installed in the section. A 32-channel interface card will be referred to as 4 subsections of eight channels.

As a standard, one RT-LAB interface block from the OPAL-RT I/O Blockset targets one subsection of hardware, and each block is associated with one DataIn or DataOut port in the RT-XSG model.

The different subsections referenced by a CONF file can be accessed independently from any number of subsystems of the real-time model, provided that each subsystem contains the corresponding OpCtrl or OpLnk block (refer to the help of these blocks for more information). However, each DataIn or DataOut port can be used only by one block in the RT-LAB design.

Manual CONF File Creation

The following template can be used, adding one row per DataIn and DataOut channel, as required. It is not mandatory to include all ports in the CONF file: only the ports that will be used by application-specific blocks from the OPAL-RT I/O library are required.

Column Description

• PortName: The port number from either the DataIn or DataOut block;
• Description: Signal type (either one of the reserved names or any other name if the signal is to be used with the DataIn Send or DataOut Recv block);
• Slot: Location of the I/O interface hardware in the chassis;
• Section: Section of the I/O interface hardware (A or B);
• Subsection: 8-channel signal subsection of the corresponding slot/section pair;
• Count: Number of items to send per time step. A value of -1 is written for signal types for which the data count is not known a priori in RT-XSG (e.g. TSDI and TSDO signal types, as the number of events per time step, is set in the OPAL-RT I/O block itself);
• Size: Size in bits of each item to be sent. If Size < 17 bits and Count > 1, many items are concatenated into 32-bit packets for optimal communication between the RT-LAB and RT-XSG models.

Typical count and size for the OPAL-RT I/O blocks

The typical data word count and size of the different OPAL-RT I/O blocks are indicated in the table below

OPAL-RT I/O blocks that require LoadIn

For some of the IO blocks, a LoadIn block is required and it must be specified in the conf file.