Intelligent CAMAC crate controller incorporating a transputer

A CAMAC crate controller module having a built-in transputer was developed, being named the “Intelligent CAMAC Crate Controller (ICCC)”. Due to the transputerʹs architecture, multiple ICCCs can be networked by simple serial link connections. The control programs are developed in Occam or C language, which support conccurrent argorithms and their implementation in transputer networks. Each ICCC controls the front-end CAMAC modules in the crate, operates in parallel, and interpretes commands from the host computer. Data read from the modules is concurrently and autonomously processed, and then transmitted to the network where it is gathered into the host computer file system. The present paper describes the ICCCʹs hardware and software using a simple configuration network. Our particular device application for a balloon-borne experiment is also discussed, i.e., a data acquisition system networking twenty-seven transputers.