Research and design of DAQ system for Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment

The main task of the data acquisition (DAQ) system in Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment is to record antineutrino candidate events and other background events. The DAQ system must record data in high speed with a negligible readout dead-time. The DAQ front-end readout system is a real-time system based on VME bus. The VME controller, an embedded single-board computer based on a PowerPC, is used to collect, preprocess, and transfer data. TimeSys, the operation system run on controller, is a commercial embedded real-time Linux. This paper presents the DAQ main design requirements, the system architecture and the DAQ software, and describes the feasibility and realization of using embedded Linux in front-end readout system of high energy physics experiment.