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Description
Summary
The Active Pixel Sensor (APS) detectors are widely investigated for application in HEP. Parallel data channel (about 60Mbytes per seconds) is usually used for readout information from APS. Special PC parallel port card or similar solution in VME standard are used in this case. DAQ for this case is heavy and difficult for manipulation. More flexible solution, simple 16 bit parallel to USB2 stream converter is described in this paper. It allows readout with rate about 48Mbytes per second and it can be easy adapted for many different readout architectures and can run on different OS (Win XP, Linux). Flexibility of converter is reached by using virtual periphery concept for design, fastest 8-bits micro controller SX20 from UBICOM and Quick-USB module from BITWISE. The DAQ of APS can be connected to portable computer using this converter and moreover the converter also allows to use the same HW and SW for different OS. Examples of code used for readout of APS are prepared for C++, Lab View and Lab Windows and can be download from author Web page. The hardware description, Gerber files and firmware for converter can be downloaded too.