[en] The Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS) at Argonne National Laboratory is a major new user-oriented facility which has come on line for basic research in neutron scattering and neutron radiation damage. This paper describes the distributed-processing data-acquisition system which handles data collection and instrument control for the time-of-flight neutron-scattering instruments. The topics covered include the overall system configuration, each of the computer subsystems, communication protocols linking each computer subsystem, and an overview of the software which has been developed