ARC, Inc. - Gen IV Software

G4 Image Acquisition App

The G4 app is the control and image acquisition software for the Gen IV controller. It is designed to be used for both development and scientific image acquisition. G4 is the simplest and fastest way to start. Requires the ARC-460 PCIe device driver.

Features -

Include controller initialization, system temperature and voltage monitoring, custom channel assignment options, individual board settings, developer tools, image display, FITS and post-processing.
Customizable using java beanshell scripting
Handles custom controller commands with no additional coding
Compatible with Linux (Ubuntu LTS 20.04 or newer) and Windows 10
Uses the ARC API libraries

Critical: The re-released version 4.5.9 ( dated December 15, 2021 ) contains an important sercurity vulnerability fix and should replace any existing G4 versions immediately. The fix involves the removal and replacement of the log4j library, which was found to have a major security issue.

Developer Application Interface (ARC API)

The ARC API is a set of modern C++ libraries that provide classes necessary to control, aquire and post process images with the Gen IV controller. These libraries are the hardware interface for the G4 app and may be used by developers for their own data acquisition system.

Features -

Uses modern C++ features from GCC 11+ and latest Visual Studio
Visual Studio Code is now the Linux development environment
Compatible with Linux (Ubuntu LTS 20.04 or newer) and Windows 10

Gen IV ARC-460 PCIe Device Driver

The PCIe device driver is required.

Features -

Compatible with Linux (Ubuntu LTS 20.04 or newer) and Windows 10

Gen IV Micro-controller Firmware and Tools

The C based micro-controller firmware performs controller operations. The files can be edited and compiled using the Eclipse based MCUXpresso (or the older LPCXpresso) integrated development environment (IDE).

Features -

Eclipse based IDE with integrated debugging via JTAG for micro-controller firmware development
Micro-controller firmware uses C language
HxRG-1.3 requires ARC API/G4 version 4.5.9
HxRG-1.2 requires ARC API/G4 version 4.5.8

Additional Gen IV Tools

FPGA and CPLD program updating via Quartus software and USB blaster: