Upgrade of the ESRF Vacuum Control System

The whole vacuum control system of the electron storage ring (SR) of the ESRF is in operation since more than ten years now. Apart from difficulties to have appropriate support for the old system, we start facing problems of aging and obsolescence. We have been reviewing our philosophy of data acquisition and remote control in order to upgrade our systems with state of the art technology, taking into account our operational experience. We have started installing shielded “intelligent” devices inside the SR and taking advantage of the latest developments linked to new technologies, such as OPC Server (Openness, Productivity, Connectivity), Webpage instrument control and more. This paper outlines our actual work dedicated for Programmable Logical Controller (PLC) applications.