DAPHNE...the Design of a Parallel Multiprocessor Data Acquisition System

The DAPHNE data acquisition system is designed to collect data at high rates from CAMAC instruments and to analyze the data on-line with multiple single-board computers using the National 32016 micoprocessor. It will be the standard data acquisition system used on all instruments at the Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator (ATLAS), a heavy ion accelerator. The system includes a programmable Event Handler to acquire the data from CAMAC instruments, Event Processors operating in parallel to analyze the data, an Event Distributor to supply the data to the parallel processors, and an intelligent Event Processor Interface to control the Event Processors and transfer data between the host computer and the Event Processors. Functional characteristics of each of these system components will be discussed and the design of the custom Event Distributor and intelligent Event Processor Interface will be described in detail.