[en] The time-slicing subsystem of the Biology Small-Angle X-ray Scattering divides the time period during which the data for small-angle x-ray diffraction patterns from biological samples is collected into time slices (or frames). The subsystem, being part of a multiprocessor experiment control and data acquisition system, has its own dedicated processor; it also has special-purpose front-end electronics sufficient to generate the gating and other control signals required to produce a sequence of as many as 256 time slices, measured with a basic time unit of 1 μsec. The electronics also synchronizes with execution of the time slice sequence the application of stimuli to the biological sample, the measurement of voltages generated by the sample, and the application of auxiliary device trigger pulses and routes detector data and auxiliary scaler data into appropriate time-slice-indexed buffers in a large external data memory array. The structure of the entire experiment control and data acquisition system is briefly reviewed. Details of the structure and operation of the time slice subsystem are presented. 7 refs., 5 figs

[en] Four copies of a general purpose subsystem for mechanical positioning of detectors, samples, and beam line optical elements which constitute experiments at the National Synchrotron Light Source facility of Brookhaven National Laboratory have been constructed and placed into operation. Construction of a fifth subsystem unit is nearing completion. The subsystems affect mechanical positioning by controlling a set of stepping motor-encoder pairs. The units are general purpose in the sense that they receive commands over a 9600 baud asynchronous serial line compatible with the RS-232-C electrical signal standard, generate TTL-compatible streams of stepping pulses which can be used with a wide variety of stepping motors, and read back position values from a number of different types and models of position encoder. The basic structure of the motor controller subsystem is briefly reviewed. Additions to the subsystem made in response to problems indicated by actual operation of the four installed units are described in more detail

No abstract available

[en] A prototype and four copies of a general purpose subsystem for mechanical positioning of detectors, samples, and beam line optical elements which constitute experiments at the National Synchrotron Light Source facility of Brookhaven National Laboratory have been constructed and placed into operation. Construction of a sixth subsystem is nearing completion. The subsystems effect mechanical positioning by controlling a set of stepping motors and their associated position encoders. The units are general purpose in the sense that they receive commands over a standard 9600 baud asynchronous serial line compatible with the RS-232-C electrical signal standard, generate TTL-compatible streams of stepping pulses which can be used with a wide variety of stepping motors, and read back position values from a number of different types and models of position encoder. The basic structure of the motor controller subsystem will be briefly reviewed. Short descriptions of the positioning apparatus actuated at each of the test and experiment stations employing a motor control unit are given. Additions and enhancements to the subsystem made in response to problems indicated by actual operation of the four installed units are described in more detail

[en] An attempt to design and implement a computer system for control of and data collection from a set of laboratory experiments reveals that many of the experiments in the set require an extensive collection of parameters for their control. The operation of the experiments can be greatly simplified if a means can be found for storing these parameters between experiments and automatically accessing them as they are required. A subsystem for managing files of such experiment control parameters is discussed. 3 figures

[en] A general-purpose mechanical positioning subsystem for open-loop control of experiment devices which have their positions established and read out by stepping motor-encoder combinations has been developed. The subsystem is to be used mainly for experiments to be conducted at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The subsystem unit has been designed to be compatible with a wide variety of stepping motor and encoder types. The unit may be operated by any device capable of driving a standard RS-232-C asynchronous serial communication line. An informal survey has shown that several experiments at the Light Source will use one particular type of computer, operating system, and programming language. Accordingly, a library of subroutines compatible with this combination of computer system elements has been written to facilitate driving the positioning subsystem unit

[en] A data acquisition and experiment control system for experiments at the Biology Small-Angle X-ray Scattering Station at the National Synchrotron Light Source has been developed based on a multiprocessor, functionally distributed architecture. The system controls an x-ray monochromator and spectrometer and acquires data from any one of three position-sensitive x-ray detectors. The average data rate from the position-sensitive detector is approx. 10⁶ events/sec. Data is stored in a one megaword histogramming memory. The experiments at this Station require that x-ray diffraction patterns be correlated with timed stimuli at the sample. Therefore, depending on which detector is in use, up to 10³ time-correlated diffraction patterns may be held in the system memory simultaneously. The operation of the system is functionally distributed over four processors communicating via a multiport memory

[en] We have developed a subsystem capable of controlling stepping motors in a wide variety of vuv and x-ray spectrometers to be used at the National Sychrotron Light Source. The subsystem is capable of controlling up to 15 motors with encoder readback and ramped acceleration/deceleration. Both absolute and incremental encoders may be used in any mixture. Function commands to the subsystem are communicated via ASCII characters over an asynchronous serial link in a well-defined protocol in decipherable English. Thus the unit can be controlled via write statements in a high-level language. Details of hardware implementation will be presented

[en] A computer system to control and acquire data from one x-ray diffraction, five neutron scattering, and four neutron diffraction experiments located at the Brookhaven National Laboratory High Flux Beam Reactor has operated in a routine manner for over three years. The computer system is configured as a network of computer processors with the processor interconnections assuming a star-like structure. At the points of the star are the ten experiment control-data acquisition computers, referred to as application nodes. At the center of the star is a shared service node which supplies a set of shared services utilized by all of the application nodes. A program development node occupies one additional point of the star. The design and implementation of a network subsystem to support development and execution of operating systems for the application nodes is described. 6 figures, 1 table

[en] A scheme for managing resources required for transaction processing in the common node of a distributed function computer system has been given. The scheme has been found to be satisfactory for all common node services provided so far