Adding PCs to SLC control system

The SLAC Controls Department has interfaced IBM-Compatible PCs to the SLC Control System, for use by the Final Focus Test Beam (FFTB) experimenters, who are building new accelerator equipment and developing and testing it at their home institutions. They will bring the equipment to SLAC and integrate it into the control system using a new software package. The machine physicists and operators will use the existing SLC control system applications and database device types to control and monitor the equipment. The PCs support a limited control enviroment: they run DOS and exchange messages with the existing control system via TCP/IP over ethernet, using the new SLC Area Message Service. This mechanism will also allow SLC to implement other commercial device controllers that can communicate over ethernet and run the same software interface code