Operational Experience with the CEBAF Control System
Kevin White, D. Kehne · University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · 1995
This paper describes our operational experience with the CEBAF control system. CEBAF is operated using a variety of software packages and custom applications. In the spirit of collaboration and software sharing, the current system utilizes code developed at four major laboratories as well as commercial packages and custom applications. The basis of the CEBAF control system is EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System), originally developed at LANL and ANL. The CEBAF accelerator is operated primarily using the common EPICS tools such as the archiver, alarm handler and display manager. In order to supplement the features of EPICS, custom applications have been developed and incorporated into the control system using C, C++, and TCL. Additionally, the CEBAF helium plant is controlled using the CEBAF TACL system which requires communications between the two control systems. CATER, a problem tracking program developed at SLAC, has also been integrated into the operational software. Current plans call for the integration of an on-line logbook developed at APS and the internal development of a down-time logger program. We discuss how these various tools and applications are used operationally, the advantages and disadvantages of the systems and the challenges related to integrating this diverse array of software.