Atom Smasher Computers and Electronics

Computers and electronic systems do several tasks in the operation of a particle accelerator:

control the particle source, klystrons and magnets used in accelerating the particles
monitor the beam
collect and record the data from the experiments
analyze the data
monitor the safety systems
shut down the system in the event of an emergency

Particle accelerators have many computers that control the system. These computers generally have the highest-speed microprocessors available, with large amounts of computer memory and data storage. These computers are often networked together. In some cases, computer data analyses may be done by on- or off-site supercomputers.