A large distributed control system using Ada in fusion research

Construction of the National Ignition Facility laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory features a large distributed control system constructed using object-oriented software engineering techniques. Control of 60,000 devices is effected using a network of some 500 computers that run software written in Ada and communicating through CORBA. The project has completed its final design review; implementation of the first of five planned increments will be delivered at the end of fiscal year 1998. Preliminary measures of the distributed controls performance confirm the design decisions reported in this paper, and the measurement and supporting simulation of full system performance continue.