The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider control system

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider control system has been used in the commissioning of the AGS to RHIC transfer line and in the first RHIC sextant test. Much of the controls infrastructure for networks and links has been installed throughout the collider. All of the controls hardware modules needed to be built for early RHIC operations have been designed and tested. Many of these VME modules are already being used in normal AGS operations. Over 150 VME based front end computers and device controllers will be installed by the Summer of 1998 in order to be ready for Fall of 1998. A few features are being added to the front end computer core software. The bulk of the Accelerator Device Objects (ADOs) which are instantiated in the FECs, have been written and tested in the early commissioning. A configuration database has been designed. Generic control and display of ADO parameters via a spreadsheet like program on the console level computers was provided early on in the control system development. User interface tools that were developed for the AGS control system have been used in RHIC applications. Some of the basic operations programs, like alarm display and save/restore, that are used in the AGS operations have been or will be expanded to support RHIC operations. A model for application programs which involves a console level manager servicing ADOs have been verified with a few RHIC applications. More applications need to be written for the Fall of 1998 commissioning effort. A sequencer for automatic control of the fill is being written with the expectation that it will be useful in early commissioning.