CMS Beam Scintillator Counter VME Readout

The early development of the BSC VME readout is presented; including an overview of the hardware and software setup and the current status of the data acquisition system. The VME modules used in the hardware setup are the CAEN V2718 optical link bridge, V812 constant fraction discriminator and the V767 TDC. The software package HAL is used to interface with the VME modules. The C++ code that handles this communication is detailed, as are the installation of HAL and the CAEN VME drivers. Various acquisition modes of the TDC produce unstable outputs, and an investigation into these is also described.