• F. Gerigk, S. Atieh, S. Calatroni, O. Capatina, E. Ciapala, M. Eshraqi, L.M.A. Ferreira, R. Garoby, M. Hernandez Flano, W. Höfle, E. Lebbos, A.M. Lombardi, E. Montesinos, Th. Otto, V. Parma, P.A. Posocco, T. Renaglia, M. Schuh, V. Vlachoudis, W. Weingarten, S. Weisz
  CERN, Geneva
• R. Calaga
  BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York

During the past 2 years the Superconducting Proton Linac (SPL) study has grown into an international collaboration with the goal of optimising the architecture of a pulsed superconducting (SC) high-power proton linac. This effort includes the study and prototyping of major technical components, such as SC high-gradient cavities, power couplers, the RF distribution system, HOM couplers, cryo-modules, focusing elements, etc. Even though the effort is driven by CERN specific needs, the established design principles are valid for a range of superconducting linac projects. In this paper we report on the latests decisions concerning the machine architecture and on the ongoing R&D effort for technical components.