LANL, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) operates at a maximum repetition rate of 120 Hz. Timing gates are required for synchronization of the accelerator to provide beam acceleration along the LINAC and beam distribution to the five experimental areas. They are also provided to other devices with sensitive operating points relative to the machine cycle. Over the last 50 years of operations many new time sensitive pieces of equipment have been added. This has changed the demand on, and complexity of, the timing system. Further driven by equipment obsolescence issues, the timing system un-derwent many upgrades and revitalization efforts, with the most significant deployment starting in 2016. Due to these upgrade efforts, the timing system architecture design changed from a purely centralized system, to a distributed event-based one. The purpose of this paper is to detail the current state of the timing system, as a hy-brid system with the gate events being generated from a new timing master system, while still utilizing legacy distribution and fanout systems. Upgrades to the distribu-tion system are planned, but due to the required beam delivery schedule, they can only be deployed in sections during four-month annual maintenance cycles. The paper will also cover the off-the-shelf solutions that have been found for standardization, and the efforts towards a life cycle management process.
LA-UR-23-31123
