The FMIT Facility Control System

The control system for the Fusion Materials Irradiation Test (FMIT) Facility, under construction at Richland, Washington, uses current techniques in distributed processing to achieve responsiveness, maintainability and reliability. Developmental experience with the system on the FMIT Prototype Accelerator (FPA) being designed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory is described as a function of the system's design goals and details. The functional requirements of the FMIT control system dictated the use of a highly operator-responsive, display-oriented structure, using state-of-the-art console devices for man-machine communications. Further, current technology has allowed the movement of device-dependent tasks into the area traditionally occupied by remote input-output equipment; the system's dual central process computers communicate with remote communications nodes containing microcomputers that are architecturally similar to the top-level machines. The system has been designed to take advantage of commercially available hardware and software. The use of national and international standards in both hardware and software has minimized the design staff and maximized the flexibility and maintainability of the system.