CODAS the JET Control and Data Acquisition System

JET - The Joint European Torus - will be a major step in the European Community's fusion program. The principal objective of the experiment is to obtain and study a plasma in conditions and dimensions approaching those needed in a thermonuclear reactor. The size and complexity of the experiment demands an integrated computerized control and data acquisition system. CODAS comprises machine monitoring and control, acquisition of plasma and machine data, data analysis and storage. It is divided into several almost self contained subsystems, each of which is controlled and serviced by a minicomputer. The various local units of each subsystem are interfaced through CAMAC. The communication between the centralized control and the subsystems is obtained through 3 communication paths, the computer communication, the timing and the interlock system. The experiment as a whole is operated from two consoles, the machine console and the experiment console. One computer with large storage capacity is foreseen for the filing of all data, for automatic data processing between two pulses and for further analysis programs.