LANL, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
Replacing your accelerator's timing system with a completely different architecture is not something that happens very often. Perhaps even rarer is the requirement that the replacement not interfere with the accelerator's normal operational cycle. In 2014, The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) began the first phase of a multi-year rolling upgrade project which will eventually result in the complete replacement of the low-level RF system, the timing system, the industrial I/O system, the beam-synchronized data acquisition system, the fast-protect reporting system, and much of the diagnostic equipment. These projects are mostly independent of each other, with their own installation schedules, priorities, and time-lines. All of them, however, must interface with the timing system. This paper will focus on the timing system replacement project, its conversion from a centralized discrete signal distribution system to a more distributed event-driven system, and the challenges faced by having to interface with both the old and new equipment until the upgrade is completed.
