ATROPOS: A Versatile Data Acquisition and Analysis System

摘要

Versatile, portable, rugged, and compact test and control modules for use in the development and testing of detection equipment for high-energy physics experiments are frequently needed at SLAC. The basic system developed is based on an LSI-11 microcomputer with 24K RAM, 4K ROM, 2 serial interfaces (one to the console terminal, the other to the large SLAC IBM computer complex (the TRIPLEX)), a programable clock, and a CAMAC crate controller. Data logging support is provided for magnetic tape, floppy disk, and an interactive program (ACQUIRE) which runs on the TRIPLEX under the timesharing system ORVYL. Data are read from various CAMAC modules, collected, buffered, and optionally logged. At a lower priority, the data read are sampled and analyzed in real-time on the LSI-11 to produce various histograms and tables. Concurrently, a more extensive analysis can be performed by the TRIPLEX program on the data which are logged to it. Interactive facilities provided by the microcomputer operating system enable the user to change CAMAC module addresses and the function codes used with them, specify various data cuts and transformations that are to be performed on the sample data, and specify new histogram limits and titles. Results of the real-time analysis, by both the microcomputer and the TRIPLEX program (if it is attached), may be displayed in graphical or tabular form on the console terminal. The basic system hardware cost (exclusive of the magnetic tape drive and floppy disk drive) is around $7000. The software is written in a modular fashion so that the user can supply his own data reading and analysis routines. This system has been in use for two years by various groups on several LSI-11s at SLAC. 3 figures. (ERA citation 04:024406)