PCI to CAMAC System

The large inventory of existing CAMAC hardware in physics research demands new, faster and more powerful interfaces to the new generations of computer available today. Maximum performance is possible by extending the 24 bit CAMAC data format to 32 bits and using the PCI bus standard to interface CAMAC crates to Personal Computers and Work Stations. The WIENER PCICAMAC system follows this approach. It consists of the CC32 CAMAC crate controller and the PCIADA interface card. Both units are connected via a 32-bit parallel cable (SCSI2-type). Differential bus drivers and receivers are used for fast and reliable data transfer.

For maximum performance the PCICAMAC system is using only direct memory mapping into the PC (32kB segment). All addresses in this 32kB space are NFA coded (see table). This method is used for both CAMAC data way access as well as for the direct access to local CC32 registers.

CC32 CAMAC controller

• Two unit wide CAMAC crate controller
• 32-bit wide computer interface
• 16 and 24 (32) bit data transfer supported
• 24-bit programmable LAM mask register
• 2 interrupts for LAM and time-out 
• Programmable S1 strobe time tuning for each station
• LED display for +6V, CAMAC or local access, Inhibit and LAM
• Build In CAMAC dataway display (N, F, A, R / W Data, Q, X, C, Z)
• Implemented test functions for LAM, Q and X response
• FAST CAMAC LEVEL 1 support (up to 5MB/s in dual word, auto-read)
• Performance for individual NAF read & write operations:

  Data width	READ	WRITE
  16-bit	1.2µs	1.0µs
  32-bit	1.5µs	1.1µs

PCIADA Interface card

• Based on PLX9050
• Supports 8, 16, 32 -bit PCIbus slave access
• 32 kbyte memory window for CAMAC NAF mapping
• interrupt generation on PC
• differential link to CC32
• Driver and application examples for Windows 95/98/2000/XP
• New LINUX driver (kernel-2.4.2)
• LabView driver and VI's, C++ sample code
• compatible to VMEMM system
• supported by DAQ software packages:
• MSU NSCL
• MIDAS