The VINCI instrument software in the very large telescope environment

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) very large telescope interferometer (VLTI) got first fringes on March 17, 2001 at Mount Paranal in Chile. The VINCI instrument has played a key role in the achievement of this important milestone and is a fundamental component for the current VLTI operations. This paper, after a brief introduction of the VLTI and the instrument itself, will focus mainly on control software aspects. It describes the VINCI hardware and software architecture in the context of the whole VLT control concept. Particular emphasis is given to real-time control aspects, data acquisition, distribution of control over several hardware platforms, networks, standardization of hardware and software components, and software configuration control management.