Operating experience with a multiple-processor system for data acquisition and reduction in nuclear physics
A multiprocessor system based on commercially available VMEbus components has been developed for the acquisition and reduction of event-mode data in nuclear structure physics experiments. The system contains seven 68000 CPU's and 14MB of memory. A simple operating system handles data transfer and task allocation, and a compiler for a specially designed event analysis language produces code for the processors. Design considerations are discussed for the hardware and software, with emphasis on the differences in requirements between nuclear and high-energy physics applications. The system has been in operation for four years at the University of Pennsylvania Tandem Accelerator Laboratory. Computation rates several times that of a MicroVAX II have been achieved at a fraction of the cost. A recent improvement to the system has been the addition of WORM optical disks which allow the processing of gigabyte data sets without operator intervention.
- Research Organization:
- Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6396 (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 6028255
- Journal Information:
- Comput. Phys.; (United States), Vol. 3:5
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
ARRAY PROCESSORS
DESIGN
USES
NUCLEAR PHYSICS
DATA ACQUISITION
NUCLEAR STRUCTURE
PHYSICS
651100* - Nuclear Physics- Experimental Techniques- (1980-)
990210 - Supercomputers- (1987-1989)