Data acquisition for the Zeus central tracking detector

The transputer-based data acquisition system for the Zeus central tracking detector is described. The Zeus experiment is being installed on the Hera electron-proton collider being built at the Desy laboratory in Hamburg. The high-beam crossover rate of the Hera machine will provide experience in data acquisition and triggering relevant to the environment of future accelerators. The front-end data acquisition system, the crate readout system, and the system readout are described. The readout controller is discussed. The current status and future developments are outlined for this architecture.