Application Calculation Engine (ACE)

The Application Calculation Engine (ACE) performs simple equations for the RealTime service. It starts up and shuts down automatically with the server. The ACE calculations are driven from two sources: ACE code (acecode) and ACE Configuration (aceconfig).

The configuration of the ACE begins with the creation of source files for the acecode. These files contain an area for you to enter custom code for equations and other functions. After your source files exist, you can begin the configuration of ACE through the Aceconfig table in the Advanced Database Editor (ADE). The aceconfig records allow you to specify how and when the process will execute the equations. These records establish the inputs that correspond to equations and functions in your acecode. They also create the triggers that cause the ACE to execute acecode. The aceconfig records draw on the acecode and feed inputs into the corresponding operations executed by the ACE process.

Each aceconfig record results in an ACE routine when the process starts up. Aceconfig records can be configured to have outputs (which are results of calculations) or to perform actions within the acecode. The output of an ACE routine can be written to any RealTime numeric field or database point, and may ultimately appear in an easy eXtended Operator Station (ezXOS) display. ACE routines can be triggered periodically or manually. You can configure the routine so it executes whenever there is a change to the numeric value of an input parameter, the computer starts up or fails over, or on an alarm.

ACE should be used for rapid database operations and recurring calculations. The design of the ACE enables you to execute thousands of routines per second; therefore, operations that take longer than a few milliseconds are poor candidates for this process.