Data Acquisition and Analysis System for the Holifield Heavy Ion Research Facility

The Holifield Heavy Ion Research Facility is a national resource which will serve a large number of nuclear and atomic physicists who expect to perform experiments which vary widely in type and complexity. Although much consideration must be given to the problem of rapid acquisition and processing of many-parameter data, an equal emphasis will be placed on operational simplicity and the standardization of hardware and software. Two "active" experimental counting areas and two or more "setup" areas are served by three remotely located Perkin-Elmer 8/32 computers which are interfaced to the user equipment by means of three CAMAC branch highways. Other equipment includes a large disk system, alphanumeric/graphic terminals and printer-plotters located in each of the counting areas. The system operation as well as techniques for the rapid sorting of data into large (~ 10 million channels) histograms on disk are discussed.