  The Detector Safety System (DSS), currently being developed at CERN under the
auspices of the Joint Controls Project (JCOP), will be responsible for assuring
the protection of equipment for the four LHC experiments. Thus, the DSS will
require a high degree of both availability and reliability. After evaluation of
various possible solutions, a prototype is being built based on a redundant
Siemens PLC front-end, to which the safety-critical part of the DSS task is
delegated. This is then supervised by a PVSS SCADA system via an OPC server.
The PLC front-end is capable of running autonomously and of automatically
taking predefined protective actions whenever required. The supervisory layer
provides the operator with a status display and with limited online
reconfiguration capabilities. Configuration of the code running in the PLCs
will be completely data driven via the contents of a "Configuration Database".
Thus, the DSS can easily adapt to the different and constantly evolving
requirements of the LHC experiments during their construction, commissioning
and exploitation phases.
