Real time analysis of tokamak discharge parameters.

The techniques used in implementing two applications of real time digital analysis of data from the DIII-D tokamak are described. These tasks, which are demanding in both the speed of data acquisition and the speed of computation, execute on hardware capable of acquiring 40 million data samples per second and executing 80 million floating point operations per second. In the first case, a feedback control algorithm executing at a 10 kHz cycle frequency is used to specify the current in the poloidal field coils in order to control the discharge shape. In the second, fast Fourier transforms of Mirnov probe data are used to find the amplitude and frequency of each of eight toroidal mode numbers as a function of time during the discharge. Data sampled continuously at 500 kHz are used to produce results at 2 ms intervals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]