Real-time software for the fusion experiment WENDELSTEIN 7-X

The super conducting stellarator WENDELSTEIN 7-X will be capable of steady state operation as well as of pulsed operation. All discharge scenarios compatible with these capabilities will be supported by the control system. Each technical component and each diagnostic system will have its own control system, based on a real-time computer with the dedicated software described here, permitting autonomous operation for commissioning and testing and coordinated operation during experimental sessions. The system behaviour as far as it is relevant for the experiment, like parameters and algorithms, will be exclusively controlled by complex software objects. By changing references to these objects synchronously in all computers the whole system behaviour can be changed from one cycle to the next. All data required for the construction of the software objects will be stored in one central database and constructed in the control computers well before they are required.