PHYS673 Assigned Work

The assigned work should be submitted in terms of a fully documented piece of C source code. Other explanatory documentation should not be needed, ie. all documentation should be enclosed in /* */ comment delimiters. Also, submit the output that would result from running your program. You may be asked to show your code running on your favourite computer.

Assignment 9

Topic: Signals
Due: November 27 before 15:30

Write programs to catch a signal from each of the following categories:

• a terminal-generated signal,
• a hardware exception generated signal,
• the kill(2) function,
• the kill(1) command and
• a software condition that generates a signal.

Assignment 8

Topic: Interprocess Communication
Due: November 20 before 15:30

Based on your previous process control program, have the child(ern) and parent communicate with each other (bi-directional communication).

• Use half-duplexed pipes. Do not use the popen/pclose UNIX functions.
• Repeat the above using two of the following methods of interprocess communication: FIFOs (named pipes), stream pipes (full duplex), named stream pipes, message queues, semaphores, shared, memory, sockets, or streams.

Assignment 7

Topic: Process Control
Due: November 13 before 15:30

Write a program that will create one or more child processes from within a parent process. I do not care what the processes do but they should run for a time long enough to be observed on the system. The children do not need to communicate between themselves or the parent process. All children should terminate normally before the parent. Once the parent has determined that all the children have terminated, the parent must terminate normally. The print messages should not be garbled and nothing should be assumed. It would be nice if the program could show me all the relevant process identifiers and process status without me having to type anything in a seperete window.

Assigned Work on Data Acquisition Topics

The goal of the following assigned work is for the student to read up on some areas related to the course and write a clear explanation of the topic. Avoid nitty gritty details. You can learn those later if you ever need them.

Most assigned work should be submitted in the form of a couple of pages of written text (exclusive of figures and tables). I prefer a paper copy but if necessary a UNIX path, email or web page are acceptable. In these later cases I would prefer LaTeX, although postscript would be acceptable.

Assignment 6

Topic: Individual Topics on Computer Processors
Due: November 6 before 15:30

Trevor  - Pentium/Pentium Pro
Anthony - Intel 486
Rob     - PARISC
Kalen   - Alpha Chip
Bryan   - IBM RS6000
Phil    - MIPS Processor (RS4000, etc.)
Norm    - Sparc Processor

Assignment 5

Topic: Individual Topics on Microprocessors
Due: October 30 before 15:30

Trevor  - Motorola DSP (5600/9600?)
Anthony - Transputer
Rob     - PowerPC
Kalen   - Some old processor (eg. Z80, 8080, etc.)
Bryan   - Analog Devices (ADSP)
Phil    - Motorola 68000 Series (eg. MC68030)
Norm    - Texas Instruments DSP (TMS320C)

Assignment 4

Topic: Individual Topics in Readout Electronics and Triggering
Due: October 23 before 15:30

Trevor  - Charged Coupled Devices (CCD)
Anthony - Time-to-Amplitude Converters (TAC)
Rob     - LUTs, CAMs, PALs, FPALs
Kalen   - Switched Capacitor Arrays (SCA)
Bryan   - Constant Fraction Triggering (CFD)
Phil    - Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC)
Norm    - Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)

Assignment 3

Topic: Questions on Readout Electronics and Triggering
Due: October 11 before noon

The Questions.

Assignment 2

Topic: Individual Topics in Readout Electronics
Due: September 30 before 15:30

Trevor  - Logic Families: TTL, ECL, CMOS, etc.
Anthony - Signal Transmission in Cables
Rob     - The Transfer Function of a Bipolar Shaper
Kalen   - Fiber channel
Bryan   - High-Performance Parallel Interface - HIPPI
Phil    - Scalable Coherent Interface - SCI
Norm    - Asynchronous Transfer Mode - ATM

Assignment 1

Topic: Some Common "Buses" used in Experiment Data Acquisition
Due: September 18 before 15:30

Please read up on the following bus system and write down the general ideas in the format of an introduction for a beginner whom would want to know what the system is all about.

Since there are more students than "common" systems I suggest the following allocation.

NIM (Kalen/Qing)
CAMAC (Rob/Bryan)
FASTBUS (Phil/Anthony)
VME (Norm/Trevor)

If you want a different allocation or system please attempt to work it out amongst yourselves. Talk to your partner and divide up the work; all good practice for being a HEPist. You might want to ask me for reading material since these systems are not what textbooks are made of.

Additional Work for Missed Classes

Bryan - (done) Talk on Trigger and Data Acquisition at LHC
Rob - (done) Talk on Distributed Operating Systems
Rob - Dead-time study with random arrival and constant processing times
Kalen - Write your own version of the popen/pclose UNIX system functions