= IOC Hardware =
IOC means Input/Output Controller in EPICS terminology. It is a computer with physical interfaces to the instruments being controlled or monitored. For example, an IOC for temperature monitoring will contain an ADC to collect signals from temperature sensors. The sampled signals are processed by the IOC, e.g. calibration, and exported to the local network as EPICS channels (process variables to be precise). 

== IOC computer ==
EPICS IOC is a software running on a computer. The computer can be a Linux PC, vxWorks, RTEMS computers or some others. We are most likely to use Linux PCs as IOC hosts.

== Interface hardware ==
We need:
 * '''Slow ADC/DAC:''' 16bit, 16Hz sampling. Not expensive but reliable.
 * '''Binary I/O''': For various switching. Probably combined with relay boxes.
 * '''RS-232C:''' For communicating with instruments with RS-232C ports.
 * '''GPIB:''' For talking to GPIB instruments.
 * '''Ethernet:''' To communicate with network devices. We may not want to use IOCs to control them. Instead, we can just communicate with those devices directly from control room computers.
 * '''USB''': Modern instruments may only have USB port.

IOCs must have drivers for those interface hardware.