Big Karl magnet spectrometer : operating system user's manual

摘要

The high resolution magnet spectrometer BIG KARL is in operation since early 1979 at the nuclear research institute IKP of the KFA Jülich. A large number of experiments of different type and varying complexity has been carried out since then mostly in close collaboration between physicists of the IKP magnet spectrometer staff and external visiting groups. The large number of instrumentation parameters and the sophisticated ionoptical optimization procedures clearly demand for computer control and operating support especially if one considers the large distances between spectrometer area, cyclotron- and experimental control rooms.On the other hand the rather complex detector and data acquisition systems require a computer whith sufficient computing power and high speed peripheral I/0 to provide on-line control of the experiment, real-time data handling capabilities and a significant amount of general support for preparing and performing an experiment. Finally the rough experimental data have to be processed to deliver the concentrated physical results ready for publication. The Big Karl operating system comprises two computers, one small DEC PDP-11/40 system for control and a VAX-11/780 ( the only 32-bi t "supermini" available at that time) for data acquisition and analysis.