High Speed Microprocessor Based System for Drift Chamber Data Acquisition

An 8×300 microprocessor with a 250 nsec., instruction cycle time was used to scan data from 512 drift chamber wires, and send only valid data to a central computer, all in less than 2 milsec. The speed, size, cost performance trade-offs which influenced the choice of data organization, scan method and electronics will be presented. Factors influencing the selection of the 8×300 as the microprocessor best suited for this application will be mentioned. Operation of hardware and software will be discussed, touching on speed vs. memory requirements. Included will be a brief discussion of microprocessor development systems.