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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/R39191/01
Title: A PC Based Control System for the Atomika 6500 SIMS Depth Profiling Instrument
Principal Investigator: McPhail, Dr DS
Other Investigators:
Kilner, Professor JA
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Materials
Organisation: Imperial College London
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 26 April 2001 Ends: 25 April 2002 Value (£): 23,476
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Materials Characterisation
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
This is a bid for funding to replace an obsolete DEC PDP 11 computer control system on our Atomika 6500 SIMS depth profiling instrument with a new PC based control system. This development will ensure the continued satisfactory operation of the SIMS machine for several years to come for approximately 3% of the cost of a replacement SIMS machine. The Atomika has played a key role in a very broad range of materials programmes and continues to do so. We believe the instrument has many years of useful life to come. Unfortunately the instrument has developed a very serious, indeed potentially fatal, achilles heel. The instrument is controlled by an obsolete and increasingly unreliable DEC PDP 11 control computer. Two very serious problems have arisen recently (a magnetic tape backup device has failed and a hard disc boot-up has failed) and it is only a matter of time before we have a catastrophic failure of the PDP 11 based control system that renders the entire SIMS system useless.The funds requested are for an IBM based PC system with a windows based NT operating system. This system will not only secure the operation of the SIMS instrument for many years to come but will lead to significant improvements in some aspects of its performance.
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Organisation Website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk