WIDGET - A DATA-ACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR A BALLOON-BORNE SILICON PARTICLE CALORIMETER

We describe WIDGET, a complete data acquisition system (DAS) designed for a balloon-borne calorimeter using silicon strip detectors. The design includes a general purpose CPU as well as five to twenty digital signal processors (DSP) in order to control the acquisition of the data. This local intelligence also allows the instrument to re-calibrate itself, to perform calculations on the data and to control the functionality of the instrumentation. The DSPs filter the data to avoid overflowing the radio link to ground. In principle the system could control the instruments, without direct intervention from the ground, on flights that last several days. WIDGET is also a prototype for future satellite borne Si calorimeter data acquisition systems.