Software upgrade for the DIII-D neutral beam control systems

The Neural Beam Software Upgrade project was launched in early 1990. The major goals were to upgrade the MAX IV operating system to the latest version (K.1), use standard MODCOMP software (as much as possible), and to develop a very user-friendly, versatile system. Accomplishing these goals required new software to be developed and modifications to existing applications software to make it compatible with the latest operating system. The custom operating system modules to handle the message service and interrupt handling were replaced by the standard MODCOMP intertask communication (ITC) and interrupt routines that are part of the MAX IV operating system. The message service provides the mechanism for doing shot task sequencing. The interrupt routines are used to connect external interrupts to the system. The new software developed consists of a task dispatcher, a screen manager, and interrupt tasks. The existing applications software had to be modified to be compatible with the MODCOMP ITC services and consists of the Modcomp Infinity Data Base Manager, a multiuser system, and menu-driven operator system interface routines using the Infinity Data Base Manager