Experiences with STARBURST Front-End Data Preprocessing at LBL's SuperHILAC and 88-Inch Cyclotron

A Starburst processor, comprising a single-width CAMAC auxiliary crate controller with an on-board PDP 11/73 microcomputer and memory-mapped CAMAC interface, has been in service at the Laboratory for two years. It was originally implemented to allow zero-suppressed CAMAC data acquisition, but its versatility has led to the development of a front-end data acquisition language which can be used to significantly reduce acquisition deadtime and the volume of data recorded. Starburst has been implemented as a slave to the existing ModComp data acquisition computers, and has also been linked to a MicroVAX II computer through a standard parallel interface. Data format, system performance, and the data acquisition language and structure are discussed.