A new data acquisition system for pelletron-LINAC experiments

The LINAC booster facility coupled with Pelletron accelerator at Mumbai and the plans to have large detector arrays such as Indian National Gamma Array, Charged Particle Array, Neutron Array, BaF2 etc. pose new challenges to have a Data Acquisition system (DAQ) with a throughput an order of magnitude higher than the present CAMAC system. The major limitation of CAMAC readout is the 1μs/word readout time. A new FERA (Fast Encoding and Readout) data acquisition system developed at BARC for the augmentation of the throughput of CAMAC is a readout bus for the CAMAC ADCs. With this FERA DAQ, it is possible to readout CAMAC ADC's at 150 ns/word. This talk will present the new DAQ system used at BARC-TIFR Pelletron Accelerator facility. (author)