Generic data acquisition system for multi-dimensional radiation detectors

The instrumentation group at the Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science have developed a low cost generic data acquisition system. This system is to be used in a variety of applications and to assist in the design and testing of emerging detectors. The system utilises a desktop PC which interfaces to a detector via one or more custom 64-bit PCI cards, each equipped with an Altera CycloneIItrade FPGA (2c70 ) and plug-in daughter boards, this provides flexibility to easily customise analogue and digital signal processing. A GUI application controls the system via variables and scripts, renders and analyses real-time data, and supports importing and exporting in a variety of formats. This paper presents an overview of the data acquisition system and the process of interfacing with a two-dimension multi-wire proportional chamber with delay-line readout with an expected timing resolution of 10 ps.