DIII–D tokamak control and neutral beam computer system upgrades

Abstract

This paper covers recent computer system upgrades made to the DIII–D tokamak control and neutral beam computer systems. The systems responsible for monitoring and controlling the DIII–D tokamak and injecting neutral beam power have recently come online with new computing hardware and software. The new hardware and software have provided a number of significant improvements over the previous Modcomp AEG VME and accessware based systems. These improvements include the incorporation of faster, less expensive, and more readily available computing hardware which have provided performance increases of up to a factor 20 over the prior systems. A more modern graphical user interface with advanced plotting capabilities has improved feedback to users on the operating status of the tokamak and neutral beam systems. The elimination of aging and non supportable hardware and software has increased overall maintainability. The distinguishing characteristics of the new system include: (1) a PC based computer platform running the Redhat version of the Linux operating system; (2) a custom PCI CAMAC software driver developed by general atomics for the kinetic systems 2115 serial highway card; and (3) a custom developed supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software package based on Kylix, an inexpensive interactive development environment (IDE) tool from borland corporation. This paper provides specific details of the upgraded computer systems.