The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) control system will be developed with several subsystems, which consist of the central control system (e.g. plasma control, machine control, diagnostic control, time synchronization, and interlock systems) and local control systems for various subsystems. We are planning to connect the entire system with several networks, viz. a reflective-memory-based real-time network, an optical timing network, a gigabit Ethernet network for generic machine control, and a storage network. Then it will evolve into a network-based, distributed real-time control system. Thus, we have to consider the standard communication protocols among the subsystems and how to handle the various kinds of hardware in a homogeneous way. To satisfy these requirements, EPICS has been chosen for the KSTAR control. The EPICS framework provides network-based real-time distributed control, operating system independent programming tools, operator interface tools, archiving tools, and interface tools with other commercial and non-commercial software. The most important advantage of the use of the EPICS framework is in providing homogeneity of the system for the control system developer. The developer does not have to be concerned about the specifies of the local system, but can concentrate on the implementation of the control logic with EPICS tools. We will present the details of the integration issues and also will give a brief summary of the entire KSTAR control system from an integration point of view. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
