Multiplexing Digitized Beam Information for Accelerator Users and Operators

As the list of digitized data signals required by accelerator users and operators grows, it becomes more economical to use serial-input/ multiple-output multiplex receivers at the user/ operator control station than it is to increase the number of coaxial cables used to supply parallel data. Increasingly, on-line computers are used to operate and monitor particle accelerators and since the digitized beam data is most naturally generated sequentially, a multiplexing system becomes doubly desirable. The Central Computer Control Group of the Argonne National Laboratory Zero Gradient Synchrotron (ZGS) has designed and constructed a system using a multiplex receiver called CUPID, an acronym for Computed Pulse Information Decoder. Using two lines of serial input, CUPID generates one master scalar reset pulse and input signals for up to 31 scalars.