Management and control of the read out processors (TPPs) of the Aleph time projection chamber

Author

Amendolia, S.R. ; Barczewski, T. ; Bauerdick, L.A.T. ; Blucher, E. ; Blum, W. ; Boudreau, J. ; Cinabro, D. ; Ciocci, M.A. ; Conway, J. ; Cowen, D.F. ; Fidecaro, F. ; Galeotti, S. ; Gobbo, B. ; Jahn, A. ; Johnson, R. ; Kasemann, M. ; Halley, A. ; Haywood,

Author_Institution

Istituto di Fisica, Pisa, Italy

Volume

36

Issue

5

fYear

1989

fDate

10/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1459

Lastpage

1463

Abstract

The readout of the Aleph time projection chamber (TPC) relies on a set of 72 time projection processors (TPPs), which are based on a Motorola 68020 microprocessor running a real-time operating system. The advanced processing capabilities of the TPPs allow them to perform in parallel a number of tasks, both during and outside of data acquisition, which are outlined. The management and control of such a large number of intelligent devices is presented. The discussion covers the hardware configuration of the TPPs; the software running the TPPs; their management, status, and control; exception handling and message logging; and the TPP monitoring tasks

Keywords

data acquisition; nuclear electronics; physics computing; position sensitive particle detectors; real-time systems; Aleph time projection chamber; Motorola 68020 microprocessor; exception handling; hardware configuration; intelligent devices; message logging; read out processors; real-time operating system; software; time projection processors; Data acquisition; Fastbus; Microprocessors; Operating systems; Performance gain; Project management; Real time systems; SCADA systems; Signal processing; Wire;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.41083

Filename

41083