Description of the Damn Yankee Controller (DYC)

Abstract

Versions of the Damn Yankee Controller (DYC) have been used to read out digitizers on the Fermilab E791, E835, FOCUS, SELEX, and KTeV experiments. The DYC accepts 16-bit data and control signals from 10 MHz Emitter Coupled Logic (ECL) PORT digitizing modules such as LeCroy CAMAC PCOS latches and FERA Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs). Data is packed into First In First Out (FIFO) memories as 32-bit longwords. Complete events including data, a leading word count, and an Event Synchronization Number are transmitted to a data destination. The DYC described here was meant to be simple and fast and was designed and built in a period of three weeks.