General, database-driven fast-feedback system for the Stanford Linear Collider

A feedback system has been developed for stabilizing SLC beams at many locations. The feedback loops are designed to sample and correct at the 60-Hz repetition rate of the accelerator. Each loop can be distributed across several of the standard 80386 microprocessors which control the SLC hardware. A communications system, KISNet, has been implemented to pass signals between the microprocessors at this rate. The software is written in a general fashion using the state-space formalism of digital control theory. This allows a new loop to be implemented by just setting up the online database and perhaps installing a communications link.<
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