[en] The authors have addressed the need for flexible and easy-to-use data-acquisition equipment for the nuclear/energy physics fields and others requiring high data rates and real-time data acquisition. Presented is the design of an intelligent, expandible I/O system using CAMAC standards and the new generation Digital Equipment Corporation VAXBI bus. The system offers a potential tenfold increase in the speed of data acquisition over current systems. A concentrated design effort is presented for the CAMAC Parallel Branch. However, the basic central processing unit, memory, and VAXBI configuration can also be used for CAMAC Serial, IEEE-488, and FASTBUS. The system uses a microprocessor-based controller, the J11, that preprocesses data prior to transmission to the VAXBI. This frees the central processor for other tasks. The design eliminates the need for special, dedicated design hardware and provides a software migration path for existing systems currently in use