Fermilab Fast Parallel Readout System for Data Acquisition

Three modules have recently been developed at Fermilab to provide high speed parallel readout of data for high energy physics experiments. This paper describes how these modules provide a fast and efficient method for transferring CAMAC event data into VME-based or FASTBUS-based memories, thus enhancing and extending the usefulness of experiments' large investments in CAMAC hardware. Using these modules can decrease the dead time of an experiment by up to a factor of 10. This paper includes a discussion of the experiment topologies In which these modules are being used.     

The Vaxonline Software System at Fermilab

The VAXONLINE software system, started in late 1984, is now in use at 12 experiments at Fermilab, with at least one VAX or MicroVax. Data acquisition features now provide for the collection and combination of data from one or more sources, via a list-driven Event Builder program. Supported sources include CAMAC, FASTBUS, Front-end PDP-11's, Disk, Tape, DECnet and other processors running VAXONLINE. This paper describes the functionality provided by the VAXONLINE system, gives performance figures and discusses the ongoing program of enhancements.     

FASTBUS Demonstration Systems

This paper will provide a demonstration of basic FASTBUS hardware and test software. The systems will include single crate segments, simple computer I/O, a fast sequencer and memory, some simple diagnostic and display devices and a UNIBUS to FASTBUS processor interface. The equipment will be set up to show the basic FASTBUS protocols and timing transactions, as well as some of the general initialization software features.     

Software for FASTBUS and Motorola 68 K based readout controllersfor data acquisition

General software for front-end 68 K processor boards housed in FASTBUS or VME has been designed to meet the greater complexity and speed requirements on controllers. The goals for this software system, called PAN-DA, and its first implementation are described. Specific experiment configurations, the general-purpose master, the FASTBUS smart crate control, module and system monitoring, and future implementations are discussed     

A Science Driven Production Cyberinfrastructure��the Open Science Grid

This article describes the Open Science Grid, a large distributed computational infrastructure in the United States which supports many different high-throughput scientific applications, and partners (federates) with other infrastructures nationally and internationally to form multi-domain integrated distributed systems for science. The Open Science Grid consortium not only provides services and software to an increasingly diverse set of scientific communities, but also fosters a collaborative team of practitioners and researchers who use, support and advance the state of the art in large-scale distributed computing. The scale of the infrastructure can be expressed by the daily throughput of around seven hundred thousand jobs, just under a million hours of computing, a million file transfers, and half a petabyte of data movement. In this paper we introduce and reflect on some of the OSG capabilities, usage and activities.     

The PAN-DA data acquisition system

The VAXONLINE data acquisition package has been extended to include a VME-based data path. The resulting environment, PAN-DA, provides a high throughput for logging, filtering, formatting, and selecting events. The authors describe the history and rationale of the system, the VME hardware modules, PAN-DA systems coordination, and system connectivity