Development of a time-stamped distributed data acquisition system for K=600 Spectrometer

Abstract

This study discusses the development of a new prototype Distributed Data Acquisition System with optional event timestamp that can be used with the K600 spectrometer facility at iThemba LABS. This work is part of on an ongoing project known as the Dolosse data acquisition system and will focus on the development of a new data acquisition system with timestamping capabilities on the spectrometer’s crate controller single-board computer that is based on the project’s architecture. Direct memory access transfer and fragmented readout are proposed to allow efficient data transmission using an open-source stream-processing software platform as an external event buffer. Using this new data acquisition system an event timestamp can be added to the system’s read-out pipeline while still maintaining the real-time requirements of the system. To make sure the project is successful, structured programming practices and modular decomposition development methodologies are used to enhance the software quality of project. It is shown that the new data acquisition readout software system fulfills the functional requirements by adding a timestamp to physics event, and the readout of said event data using open source streaming technologies.