Midas documentation

Introduction

"MIDAS" is an acronym for Maximum Integrated Data Acquisition System.

It is a general-purpose software package for event-based data acquisition in small and medium scale Physics experiments. Its development has been started at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland) and at TRIUMF (Canada) in 1993.

MIDAS is based on a modular networking capability and a central database system. It consists of a collection of C, C++ code handling the main functionallity required for data communication between the different acquisition nodes, data control for run operation, data distribution for online data analysis and more. It does also provide the appropriate tools for control and monitoring the run condition from a web application. Midas is supported on current OS such as UNIX-like, Windows, VxWorks. While the system is already in use in many laboratories, the development continues with addition of new features and tools. Recent developments involve multi-threading, FGPA/Linux support, MSCB extension. For the latest status, check the MIDAS home page: Switzerland , Canada

History

In the early '90s, based on a previous DAQ version of a Data Acquisition system running under MS-DOS with network capability (HIX), Dr. Stefan Ritt at Paul Sherrer Institut (Switzerland) started coding a new application which would be OS independent. The requirements at that time were to be able to run on VMS, ULTRIX, VxWorks, Windows. Initial use of Midas has been at Triumf (Vancouver, Canada) for the experimental facility "CHAOS". Network based the data were collected from a VME processor running VxWorks (collecting CAMAC, FastBus & VME data) and sending them to a backend computer (VMS, ULTRIX). Since then, Midas has been deployed on all the major experiments at Triumf and PSI. Midas is used also used around the world in over 80 locations from simple workbench test setups to world class experiments such as MEG (PSI), T2K (Japan), Twist (Canada), DANCE (USA).

File tree organization

Distribution package

Documentation organization

How to look for information in this document

Installation

Installation & Quick start

Feature listing

Description of Midas features

Application listing

Description and usage of the Midas programs

Online Database

Description of each ODB structure

Appendices

• ===Current supported Hardware===
• ===MIDAS Driver Library===
• ===Slow Control Hardware===
• ===Mac specific information===
• ===Multi-threading option===
• ===Event Builder information===
• ===MIDAS Event Structure===
• ===Data Formats===

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