Computer Control of High Energy Accelerators

The complexity of high energy accelerators has increased to the point where digital control techniques offer significant advantages. The basic techniques and equipment have been developed over the last ten years for use in chemical and steel plants. Some of these techniques can be usedin modified form on high energy accelerators. The amount of time required for analog-to-digital conversion and for computer input-output operations limits computers to supervisory type control. The relatively slow output rates from the computer, in combination with the precise timing requirements of the synchrotron, indicate that a special buffer is required between the computer and the synchrotron. This buffer should be able to store and execute the instructions necessary to adjust all variables (magnitude and time) that are under computer control. Present control computers are so well perfected that most of the development effort goes into suitable sensing equipment and into computer programs. Injector alignment, analysis of coasting beam, control of tune, and control of characteristics of the beam to each of several experiments are some of the functions that appear to be realizable.