The Nuclear Science Lab has two identical
data acquisition systems based on software and hardware design done
at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Physics Division. Each system consists
of a front end based on a VME processor coupled to one or more CAMAC
crates.
The VME processor controls the data flow from the CAMAC modules and transfers the data to a Linux workstation over a private ethernet. At the workstation, the data stream is usually stored on a large local hard drive. At the same time, samples of the data stream are used to construct spectra in the workstation's memory. These spectra can be displayed on the workstation's monitor and are used to monitor and guide the progress of the experiment. The data on disk are generally a copy of the entire experiment, with little or no reduction of data taking place prior to writing to the disk. The data are then transferred to DVD or CD/ROM or transferred over ethernet to other computers where individual events are sorted and analyzed.
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