Blu-Ice and the Distributed Control System: software for data acquisition and instrument control at macromolecular crystallography beamlines.
The Blu-Ice and Distributed Control System (DCS) software packages were developed to provide unified control over the disparate hardware resources available at a macromolecular crystallography beamline. Blu-Ice is a user interface that provides scientific experimenters and beamline support staff with intuitive graphical tools for collecting diffraction data and configuring beamlines for experiments. Blu-Ice communicates with the hardware at a beamline via DCS, an instrument-control and data-acquisition package designed to integrate hardware resources in a highly heterogeneous networked computing environment. Together, Blu-Ice and DCS provide a flexible platform for increasing the ease of use, the level of automation and the remote accessibility of beamlines. Blu-Ice and DCS are currently installed on four Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory crystallographic beamlines and are being implemented at sister light sources.
McPhillips
Timothy M
TM
Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, MS 69, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
McPhillips
Scott E
SE
Chiu
Hsiu-Ju
HJ
Cohen
Aina E
AE
Deacon
Ashley M
AM
Ellis
Paul J
PJ
Garman
Elspeth
E
Gonzalez
Ana
A
Sauter
Nicholas K
NK
Phizackerley
R Paul
RP
Soltis
S Michael
SM
Kuhn
Peter
P
D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D006801:Humans; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D012984:Software
D046911:Macromolecular Substances