The A500 is a real-time controller that links multiple fiber-optic device loops to a single Ethernet connection, letting a host PC talk to over 100 Pyramid devices through one port. An onboard Analog Devices ADSP-21160 DSP (480 MFlops peak) handles real-time data buffering and calculation, so time-critical control and trigger distribution can run independently of host PC timing.

The base A500 provides five fiber-optic loop ports, each a transmitter/receiver pair using 1mm Avago HFBR ST bayonet connectors, with up to fifteen devices per port and support for peer-to-peer A500-to-A500 communication over the loops. The -R5T5 mezzanine option adds five more loop ports (ten total), and -R10 adds ten additional fiber-optic receivers for incoming data streams in specialized applications.

Optional expansion boards add direct trigger and counting capability: the -G board provides four independent TTL/50 ohm gate trigger inputs with under 150ns propagation to the optical outputs, and -GC adds ten fast pulse counter-scaler channels suitable for discriminated photomultiplier pulses, with 32-bit scaler depth and integration periods from 100 microseconds to 60 seconds.

The A500 connects to the host over 10/100BaseT Ethernet using UDP, with PSI Diagnostic host software and libraries for .NET 2.0, Win32, and LabVIEW.