Glossary

D

Data Bank

data in an event in a particular format

Device

a Hardware module (e.g. a scaler) to be accessed by software called a device driver.

Driver

(also device driver) Software that allows access to a particular hardware module.

E

Equipment

see Software Equipment

Hardware Equipment

Hardware Devices (e.g. a set of scalers) grouped together for convenience of data readout by a Software Equipment.

Software Equipment

also called "Equipment". A single or a collection of sub-tasks meant to collect and regroup logical or physical data (read from a Hardware Equipment) under a single and uniquely identified event. Software Equipments are usually found in Frontends.

Event

a collection of data sent into the data stream by an Equipment, usually in the form of data banks.

F

Frontend (task)

A MIDAS application built by the user which usually has access to hardware equipment in use by the experiment.

Frontend code

User-written part (e.g. frontend.c) describing sequence of actions to acquire the hardware data. It is linked with a fixed framework mfe.c to form a Frontend..

O

ODB

Online Data Base contains all the information needed for an experiment

R

Run

A run starts when the MIDAS system receives a Start Transition , and continues until it receives a Stop transition

T

Transition