A Java-based control system for the Orsay tandem accelerator

A new control system was designed for the tandem MP-9 at Orsay. Because of the existing devices located on high voltage platforms and the lack of space inside the accelerator, in-house electronic cards based on micro-controllers and an optical fieldbus were developed to collect data. VME processors under VxWorks, a real time operating system, manage the fieldbus, concentrate the accelerator information and transmit it to the supervisory software through the ethernet network. This software consists of a collection of Java virtual machines (JVM) running on several Unix workstations and PCs under Windows. Some of the Java virtual machines manage apparatus, instruments, local display and connections to an object database and VME concentrators. Others manage general synoptics. JVMs communicate between themselves with RMI protocol and JRPC with VME concentrators. So the supervisory software can be spread over several control stations throughout the network