LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world’s most energetic laser experimental facility with 192 beams capable of delivering 2.1 MJ of 500 TW ultraviolet laser light to a target. NIF experiments facilitate the study of extreme physical conditions at temperatures exceeding 100 million K and 100 billion times atmospheric pressure allowing scientists the ability to generate conditions similar to the center of the sun and explore the physics of planetary interiors, supernovae and thermonuclear burn. This year concludes a series of optimizations and enhancements to the control & information systems to sustain the quantity of experimental target shots while developing an enhanced precision diagnostic system to optimize and increase the power and energy capabilities of the facility. In addition, many new system control and diagnostic capabilities have been commissioned to increase the understanding of target performance. This year also concludes a multi-year sustainability project to migrate the control system software to Java. This talk will report on the current status of each of these areas in support of the wide variety of experiments being conducted.
LLNL, Livermore, USA
As the National Ignition Facility (NIF) enters its second decade of full-scale operations, the demands on all aspects of the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure are becoming more varied, complex, and critical. Cybersecurity is an increasing focus area for the NIF IT team with the goal of securing the data center whilst providing the flexibility for developers to continue to access the sensitive areas of the controls system and the production tools. This must be done whilst supporting the interoperability of controls system elements executing on legacy bare metal hardware in an increasingly homogenized virtual environment in addition to responding to the user’s requests for ever-increasing storage needs and the introduction of cloud services. While addressing these evolutionary changes, the impact to continuous 24/7 Shot Operations must also be minimized. The challenges, strategies and implementation approaches being undertaken by the NIF IT team at the NIF to address the issues of infrastructure modernization will be presented.