The LNS computer control system for the commissioning of the superconducting cyclotron

The K = 800 CSC (Catania Superconducting Cyclotron) is now under commissioning at LNS [1]. The accelerator was computer controlled since its first test. The control system has been realized according to a three level architecture. At field level, field-bus networks have been used as interface between the control stations and each device to be controlled. The process level has been implemented using 386486 PCs as control stations, each one dedicated to an accelerator sub-system according to functional criteria for the intelligence distribution. The control stations communicate with the upper level by means of a local area network. The supervisor level consists of a Vax-Stations Cluster and a modular code, based on Dec Window Motif, has been developed as man-machine interface. Experience and improvements for an efficient commissioning of a fully computer controlled accelerator will be reported together with the performance obtained.