LANSCE-R. Refurbishment Project—Upgrading to a New Generation of Computation

The LANSCE-R (Los Alamos Neutron Science Center) project is an accelerator at the Los Alamos laboratory that can accelerate proton particles up to 84% the speed of light. The main purpose of their project is for materials research in the nuclear area.

Research at site focuses on civilian and defense applications including neutron source generation and proton radiography for studying dynamic properties of shocked materials, and production of medical radioisotopes.

LANSCE-R is currently refurbishing its LLRF (Low Level Radio Frequency) system which is a software defined radio application based on FPGA technology.

LANSCE-R is also upgrading its 30+ year old LINAC control systems. They plan to use EPICS (Experimental Physics and Control System) control systems as the core technology. Because their current control system is over 30 years old, the MicroVAXes and other computer systems will need to be replaced.

Additionally, the refurbishment will replace the old Master Timing system with a new one based on the Micr0-Research Finland system which uses a 2.5 GHz Ethernet technology that increases resolution of timing signals from 1 microsecond to 10 nanoseconds.

Best regards,
Hall T.