Diagnostic instruments at the Mirror Fusion Test Facility (MFTF‐B) are operated by a distributed computer system which provides an integrated control, data acquisition, and data processing interface to the experimentalist. Instrument control settings, operator inputs, and lists of data to be acquired are combined with data acquired by instrument data recorders to be used downstream by data processing codes; data processing programs are automatically informed of operator control and setpoint actions without operator intervention. The MFTF‐B distributed computing environment permits us to take advantage of several kinds of computing equipment and commercial software. The combined diagnostic control and results presentation interface is presented to experimentalist users by a network of high‐resolution graphics workstations. Control coordination, data processing, and data base management are handled by a shared‐memory network of 32‐bit super minicomputers. Direct instrument control, data acquisition, data packaging, and instrument status monitoring are performed by a network of dedicated local control microcomputers. A description of this system and our experiences in implementing the first MFTF‐B diagnostic instrument, the magnetic field alignment diagnostic (MFA), are reported here.

Topics
Data acquisition, Data processing, Mirror fusion test facility
1.
R. H. Wyman et al. in Proceedings of the 10th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, Philadelphia, PA, December 1983 (unpublished), pp. 370–374.
2.
D. N. Butner, in Proceedings of the 8th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, San Francisco, CA, November 1979 (unpublished), pp. 2011–2012.
3.
W. C. Ng, in Ref. 2, pp. 934–937.
4.
P. R. McGoldrick, in Ref. 2, pp. 2000–2002.
5.
W. G. Labiak, in Ref. 2, pp. 1991–1994.
6.
E. G. Minor and W. G. Labiak, in Proceedings of the 9th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, Chicago, IL, October 1981 (unpublished), pp. 2043–2045.
7.
W. G. Labiak and E. G. Minor, Topical Conference on Computerized Data Acquisition in Particle and Nuclear Physics, Oak Ridge, TN, 28‐30 May 1981, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. NS‐28, October 1981 Special Issue, pp. 3735–3738.
8.
D. M. Nowell, in Ref. 6, pp. 890–893.
9.
G. G. Preckshot, A. Goldner, and A. Kobayashi, in Proceedings of the 11th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, Austin, TX, November 1985 (unpublished).
10.
J. H. Choy and J. A. Wade, in Ref. 2, pp. 942–945.
11.
R. J. Jackson, T. R. Balch, and G. G. Preckshot, in Ref. 9.
12.
V. L. Renbarger and T. R. Balch, in Ref. 9.
13.
F. J. Deadrick, in Ref. 9.
This content is only available via PDF.
© 1986 American Institute of Physics.
1986
American Institute of Physics
You do not currently have access to this content.