CAMAC data acquisition system

For this reason the data acquisition systems at EMBL are based on CAMAC. Fig. (22) shows schematically the data acquisition configuration as it is used in our laboratory The high degree of modularity enables a continuous expansion of the system as required by the experiments, minimizing the development of new hardware and software. 

The 5x5 strip detector used in this work (Figure 1) was fabricated using a photomask technique to make the lithium and boron implants. Our laboratory data acquisition system consists of 10 spectroscopy channels, each with a 13-bit ADC, permitting strips to be analyzed individually. The ADCs are read out through a CAMAC crate with a Macintosh computer. Events are stored on disk in list-mode for subsequent processing. 

The CMU medium energy physics group is in the process of switching from a CAMAC-based data acquisition system to the more powerful FASTBUS standard. The advantages are numerous higher densities for more cost effective modules (typically, FASTBUS modules cost l/4 li their CAMAC counterparts), suppression of invalid data for more efficient data collection, smart crate controllers for better local control of data acquisition, faster read-out, and more. 

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