PBX-M waveform generator

The PBX-M (Princeton Beta Experiment) is an unique Tokamak experiment designed to run with a highly indented plasma. The shaping control will be accomplished through a closed-loop power supply control system. The system will make use of sixteen pre-programmed reference signals and twenty signals taken from direct measurements as input to an analog computer. Through a matrix conversion in the analog computer, these input signals will be used to generate eight control signals to control the eight power supplies. The pre-programmed reference signals will be created using a Macintosh personal computer interfaced to CAMAC (Comptuer Automated Measurement And Control) hardware for down-loading waveforms. The reference signals will be created on the Macintosh by the physics operators, utilizing the full graphics capability of the system. These waveforms are transferred to CAMAC memory, which are then strobed in real time through digital-to-analog converters and fed into the analog computer. The overall system (both hardware and software) is designed to be fail-safe. Specific features of the system, such as load inhibit and discharge inhibit, are discussed