Distributed Control System for the National Synchrotron Light Source
Until recently, accelerator and similar control systems have used modular interface hardware such as CAMAC or DATACON which translated digital computer commands transmitted over some data link into hardware device status and monitoring variables. Such modules possessed little more than local buffering capability in the processing of commands and data. The advent of the micro-processor has made available low cost small computers of significant computational capability. This paper describes how micro-computers including such micro-processors and associated memory, input/output devices and interrupt facilities have been incorporated into a distributed system for the control of the NSLS.