Data Acquisition and Processing System at the Novette Laser Fusion Facility

This paper describes the computer hardware and software used for acquisition and processing of data from experiments at the NOVETTE laser fusion facility. Nearly two hundred sensors are used to measure the performance of millimeter extent targets irradiated by multi-kilojoule laser pulses. Sensor output is recorded on CAMAC based digitzers, CCD arrays, and film. CAMAC instrument outputs are acquired and collected by a network of LSI-ll microprocessors centrally controlled by a VAX 11/ 780. The user controls the system through menus presented on color video displays equipped with touch panels. The control VAX collects data from all microprocessors and CCD arrays and stores them in a file for transport to a second VAX 11/780 which is used for processing and final analysis. Transfer is done through a high speed fiber-optic link. Relational data bases are used extensively in the processing and archiving of data.