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Data acquisition

Data from both CCDs and from the IPCS is collected by the Detector Memory System. This is a VME system based around a 68020 high performance microprocessor system with 16 MByte of memory and a fast large capacity disk. The acquired data can be displayed on a local colour image display for immediate assessment. Transfer of data from the detectors to the DMS is over a private image bus.

A high speed parallel interface is also provided to allow transfer of data from the DMS to the VAX computers for further assessment and archiving. The data is collected from the Detector Memory System into a Figaro file on the VAX by the Data Collection Task (DCT), which also collects the header information from the internal ADAM noticeboards maintained by the d-tasks.

Thus the normal flow of image data is from the detectors to the DMS, and thence onto the 4000. On the 4000, the image data is merged with header information collected from the ADAM noticeboards , and a FIGARO file is produced. Finally, this is written to FITS tape.


Thu Apr 7 00:29:52 BST 1994