Development of a custom monolithic device for data acquisition from a scintillating calorimeter at the Superconducting Super Collider

A clock-driven continuous sequential write/random read data acquisition architecture for a scintillating calorimeter at the SSC is presented. Simplicity of design and operation as well as potentially dead time-less operation are the motivations of this effort. The architecture minimizes the number of fast control signals, thereby reducing pickup from digital control lines by sensitive analog circuits in the front-end device. This architecture also reduces the logic necessary on the front-end device improving reliability and easing design and operation. Operation and design of the front-end device are discussed