A Time Projection Chamber Digitizer Test System Using a Microcomputer

A small computer system for testing digitizers, control cards, and backplanes was developed at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab to be used in the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) Detector. The objective of this development was to provide a low cost test system for fast debugging, maintenance, a quality control by outside vendors who fabricated these units as well as Laboratory personnel. When the system was delivered to the vendors, it consisted of the computer programming and documentation necessary to do a complete checkout of approximately 20,000 signal channels. To obtain this low cost system (totaling $1400) a commercial microcomputer with 16K of memory and a printer (40 characters per line, 30 characters per second) were selected. This paper describes the overall test system and programming features including the linking capabiliities of the "debug" program. It, also, describes the various interfacing techniques that were used to obtain hardcopies.