Jefferson Lab, Newport News, Virginia
Over the years, accelerator control systems have evolved from small hardwired systems to complex computer controlled systems with many types of graphical user interfaces and electronic data processing. Today’s control systems often include multiple software layers, hundreds of distributed processors, and hundreds of thousands of lines of code. While it is clear that the next generation of accelerators will require much bigger control systems, they will also need better systems. Advances in technology will be needed to ensure the network bandwidth and CPU power can provide reasonable update rates and support the requisite timing systems. Beyond the scaling problem, next generation systems face additional challenges due to growing cyber security threats and the likelihood that some degree of remote development and operation will be required. With a large number of components, the need for high reliability increases and commercial solutions can play a key role towards this goal. Future control systems will operate more complex machines and need to present a well integrated, interoperable set of tools with a high degree of automation. Consistency of data presentation and exception handling will contribute to efficient operations. From the development perspective, engineers will need to provide integrated data management in the beginning of the project and build adaptive software components around a central data repository. This will make the system maintainable and ensure consistency throughout the inevitable changes during the machine lifetime. Additionally, such a large project will require professional project management and disciplined use of well-defined engineering processes. Distributed project teams will make the use of standards, formal requirements and design and configuration control vital. Success in building the control system of the future may hinge on how well we integrate commercial components and learn from best practices used in other industries.
