Electronics and data acquisition system for the ICAL prototype detector of India-based neutrino observatory

The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) collaboration has proposed to build a 50 kton magnetized Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector with the primary goal to study neutrino oscillations, employing Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) as active detector elements. A prototype of the ICAL detector has been built in order to develop and characterize the intrinsic sub-systems, like RPCs, gas system, electronics and data acquisition system, etc. This paper describes in detail the readout electronics as well as the VME-based data acquisition system for the prototype detector.