Peter N. Clout 2002 Richard F. Shea Award

Peter Clout, the Founder and President of Vista Control Systems, Inc. received the 2002 Richard F. Shea Distinguished Member Award of the Nuclear and Plasma Science Society. The citation for the Shea Award was “For successful and innovative entrepreneurship in data acquisition and control, and for his long-time dedication to and effective leadership of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society”.
After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of London in 1965, Peter moved to York and the newly-established Physics Department to study for his D. Phil in Atomic Physics. After receiving his D. Phil in 1969, Peter stayed on as a Postdoc to build new experiments to be controlled by computer. All the hardware interfaces and the software was built and developed by Peter and in addition, to provide a virtual machine environment, he modified the computer hardware (which was possible with a wire-wrap gun then).
In 1972 Peter moved to Daresbury Laboratory near Warrington. He was responsible for data acquisition systems for Synchrotron Radiation based research. He Implemented a system based on CAMAC, Honeywell 316 computers and a fast, parallel datalink to an IBM Mainframe computer. He also acted as Deputy Group Leader and assisted the Group Leader in the management of the group and especially in the development of CAMAC standards and modules, developing and writing part of the Serial LAM Grader recommendation for ESONE. He also organized exhibits of CAMAC at conferences and commercial exhibitions.
In 1977 Peter moved to Hamburg, Germany to work at the European Molecular Biology Synchrotron Radiation Outstation at DESY. There he was responsible for establishing a data acquisition system for the experiments at the outstation. The system established was very successful and continued in use for many years. It was based on CAMAC LSI-11 controllers running a real-time Basic-like language and a serial highway connection to a PDP 11/45 acting as the server and analysis computer. At this time Peter was also working on and was latterly chair of the Subroutines for CAMAC ESONE working group.
In 1980 Peter moved to Los Alamos National Laboratory where he was responsible for the hardware and software for the Proton Storage Ring project (1980-1986). This system used graphics and commercial products in an innovative way in the age before windowing graphics. In addition, the software for the project was developed with an architecture that isolated functions into processes and used this software modularity to ensure that schedules were kept. Individual modules of the software could be tested independently then integrated without a problem. This architecture was copied for a military battlefield simulation system. The PSR control system cost was 8% of the project cost, the lowest monitored in a CERN survey of the time which found a range of 8-25%. The system was on-time and first beam was on schedule. One German research laboratory, KFA, copied this control system. The system was based on CAMAC, multiple CAMAC Serial Highways for computer communication and CAMAC access with a VAX/VMS for the primary computer and RSX-11S for the CAMAC controllers.
Peter was one of the small group that recognized that the Particle Accelerator Conference did not then provide the right forum for the Accelerator Controls people to meet, present their work and discuss it. He chaired the Accelerator Controls Workshop in Los Alamos which then developed into a conference series (ICALEPCS) that has been important in developing the controls community for large experimental physics machines ever since.
In the final battle of the Cold War, SDI, Peter was responsible for the Telescope Control System of the Ground Test Accelerator project (1986-1988) This project was considerably smaller than the Proton Storage Ring and the system was developed and fielded in less than a year. However, windowing workstations and routine computer networking had become available, and so it was decided to re-design and develop anew the software of the system based on the same overall concepts of the Proton Storage Ring System. Out of this project came the basis for Vista Control Systems’ products and over 20 Laboratories took copies and half of these developed systems based on the Telescope Control System. The system was based on CAMAC, a CAMAC Serial Highway and a VAXstation II/GPX running VMS. This system was also on-time and distinctly contributed to the success of the Telescope experiment.
At this time, Peter was also responsible as Project Leader for the Ground Test Accelerator Control System (1987–1989) The GTA control system was based on a modification of a commercial product used by another group and became EPICS. Peter’s role here was political rather than technical.
In 1988 it was increasingly clear that the political situation in the Division where he worked in Los Alamos was untenable and, on the other hand, there was excellent acceptance of the Telescope Control System externally. From this the plans to form a company and license the software developed and in 1989 Peter founded and lead the company. He is the primary sales person for the product, Vsystem. Vista Control Systems sells a software kit for building control and SCADA systems for research, military, utilities and Industry. Plants that use Vsystem process a major fraction of the steel and aluminum made in North America, producing many tens of billions of dollars of finished product per year. In addition, research groups that use Vsystem are successful with much lower staff costs than groups using non-commercial software.
Peter has held many positions in NPSS and TAB including NPSS President. Currently he is the Chairman of the NPSS Communications Committee and also the Chairman of the TAB Society Review Committee.
Peter Clout's report on the activities of his Communications Committee appears elsewhere in this issue. There you will also find his contact information