High Speed Video Data Acquisition System (VDAS) for H.E.P., Including Reference Frame Subtractor, Data Compactor and 16 Megabyte FIFO

A Video-Data-Acquisition-System (VDAS) has been developed to record image data from a scintillating glass fiber-optic target developed for High Energy Physics[ l],[2]. VDAS consists of a combination flash ADC, reference frame subtractor, high speed data compactor, an N megabyte First-In-First-Out (FIFO) memory (where N is a multiple of 4), and a single board computer as a control processor. System data rates are in excess of 30 megabytes/second. The reference frame subtractor, in conjunction with the data compactor, records only the differences from a standard frame. This greatly reduces the amount of data needed to record an image. Typical image sizes are reduced by as much as a factor of 20. With the exception of the ECL ADC board, the system uses standard TTL components to minimize power consumption and cost. VDAS operation as well as enhancements to the original system are discussed.