Common Device Interface 2.0

The Common Device Interface (CDI)* is a popular device layer in TINE control systems**. Indeed, a de-facto device server (more specifically a 'property server') can be instantiated merely by supplying a hardware address database, somewhat reminiscent of an epics IOC. It has in fact become quite popular among uses to do precisely this, although the original design intent anticipated embedding CDI as a hardware layer within a dedicated device server. When control system client applications and central services communicate directly to a CDI server, this places the burden of providing useable, viewable data (and in an efficient manner) squarely on CDI and its address database. In its initial release variant, any modifications to this hardware database needed to be made on the file system used by the CDI device server. In this report we shall describe some of the many new features of CDI release 2.0, which have drawn on the user/developer experience over the past eight years