OPERATION MODES AND CONTROLS ASPECTS OF FAIR

An international accelerator Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) has been proposed by GSI in 2001. This facility will provide the whole range of particle beams from protons and antiprotons to ion beams of all chemical elements up to uranium as well as beams of short-lived (rare isotope) beams. The proposed facility consists of a double-ring synchrotron and a system of associated storage rings for beam collection, cooling, phase space optimization and experiments. It uses the existing linear accelerator UNILAC and synchrotron SIS18 as injector. An important consideration in the design of the facility was a high degree of parallel operation of the different research programs. The first acceleration stages, which are shared by sever al experiments, have to handle different beams accurately interleaved to avoid any waiting times. The facility then appears like a dedicated facility for each of the simultaneously running programs. This parallel operation poses ambitious demands on the operation and controls of the complex facility. Preliminary ideas on the control system architecture and on the design of the timing system will be presented. Moreover, effective set-up procedures and surveillance mechanisms will be sketched, which are needed to operate the accelerators with a small operator crew.