The new vacuum control system for the SPS

The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator at CERN was put into service in 1976. The vacuum control equipment is located mainly in six surface buildings which are at distances of about 1.5 km from each other. Maintenance and repair of major parts of the vacuum control system has become very expensive, if not impossible. A description is given of the hard- and software choices which have been made to replace the existing control system, taking the limitations of the already installed control equipment into account and being based on available and proven technologies.<>