Plans for the CIT Instrumentation and Control System

Extensive experience with previous fusion experiments (TFTR, MFTF-B and others) is driving the design of the Instrumentation and Control System (I ampersand C) for the Compact Ignition Tokamak (CIT) to be built at Princeton. The new design will reuse much equipment from TFTR and will be subdivided into six major parts: machine control, machine data acquisition, plasma diagnostic instrument control and instrument data acquisition, the database, shot sequencing and safety interlocks. In a major departure from previous fusion experiment control systems, the CIT machine control system will be a commercial process control system. Since the machine control system will be purchased as a completely functional product, the authors will be able to concentrate development manpower in plasma diagnostic instrument control, data acquisition, data processing and analysis, and database systems. They will discuss the issues driving the design, give a design overview and state the requirements upon any prospective commercial process control system