Comparative Evaluation of Embedded Platforms for Real-Time Acquisition in Plasma Control Systems

In nuclear fusion experiments, rapid plasma regulation requires real-time COntrol and Data Acquisition Systems (CODAS). As physical conditions change, these systems must react timely within the CODAS architecture. This manuscript aims not only to compare different embedded implementations, but also to quantify the computational and temporal footprint that each hardware/software configuration introduces in a representative real-time acquisition and transmission loop. The three hardware targets are STM32H723GZ, in Baremetal and FreeRTOS fashion, and PicoZed board running Linux. A pure FPGA implementation serves as a time performance reference. Performance is evaluated using key metrics for fast control applications, including sampling jitter, cycle time, roundtrip time, CPU load, and network throughput. The results expose trade-offs between determinism, modularity, and resource efficiency, guiding embedded system selection for fusion-grade CODAS subsystems.