VERITAS Data Acquisition

TL;DR

This paper details the hardware and software systems of the VERITAS data acquisition chain, highlighting their roles in event synchronization, trigger management, and data quality monitoring for gamma-ray telescope arrays.

Contribution

It introduces the integrated hardware and software architecture of VERITAS data acquisition, including communication protocols and performance evaluation for array operations.

Findings

Successful synchronization of event data across the array

Effective handling of special trigger types

High data quality and system performance

Abstract

VERITAS employs a multi-stage data acquisition chain that extends from the VME readout of custom 500 MS/s flash ADC electronics to the construction of telescope events and ultimately the compilation of information from each telescope into array level data. These systems provide access to the programming of the channel level triggers and the FADCs. They also ensure the proper synchronization of event information across the array and provide the first level of data quality monitoring. Additionally, the data acquisition includes features to handle the readout of special trigger types and to monitor channel scaler rates. In this paper we describe the software and hardware components of the systems and the protocols used to communicate between the VME, telescope, and array levels. We also discuss the performance of the data acquisition for array operations.