Integration of Existing Dissimilar Power Supply Controls into a Standardized Equipment-Orientated Control System

Having analysed the existing equipment and the needs of the control rooms staff as well as of the various maintenance teams, a conceptual framework was conceived and the necessary interface hardware specified to integrate about 1200 rather different existing magnet power supplies controls into the new PS computer control system. To facilitate communication, a common precise terminology was developed. The concept aims achieved are: i) full transparency for the accelerator operation staff who will only see the global commands and the corresponding status information irrespective of the type of equipment controlled; ii) more detailed controls and appropriate malfunction indications for the power supply specialists; iii) standardization of the new interface as against dozens of different interfaces in use now for manual or various computer controls. The standard interface fits both future equipment and, with slight additions, a large fraction of the existing equipment. Other elements taken into account for the interface optimization are the efforts required for software production and hardware maintenance.