TMX-U computer system in evolution

Over the past three years, the total TMX-U diagnsotic data base has grown to exceed 10 megabytes from over 1300 channels; roughly triple the originally designed size. This acquisition and processing load has resulted in an experiment repetition rate exceeding 10 minutes per shot using the five original Hewlett-Packard HP-1000 computers with their shared disks. Our new diagnostics tend to be multichannel instruments, which, in our environment, can be more easily managed using local computers. For this purpose, we are using HP series 9000 computers for instrument control, data acquisition, and analysis. Fourteen such systems are operational with processed format output exchanged via a shared resource manager. We are presently implementing the necessary hardware and software changes to create a local area network allowing us to combine the data from these systems with our main data archive. The expansion of our diagnostic system using the paralled acquisition and processing concept allows us to increase our data base with a minimum of impact on the experimental repetition rate