  With present-day detectors in high energy physics one often faces fast analog
pulses of a few nanoseconds length which cover large dynamic ranges. In many
experiments both amplitude and timing information have to be measured with high
accuracy. Additionally, the data rate per readout channel can reach several
MHz, which leads to high demands on the separation of pile-up pulses.
  For an upgrade of the COMPASS experiment at CERN we have designed the GANDALF
transient recorder with a resolution of 12bit@1GS/s and an analog bandwidth of
500\:MHz. Signals are digitized with high precision and processed by fast
algorithms to extract pulse arrival times and amplitudes in real-time and to
generate trigger signals for the experiment. With up to 16 analog channels,
deep memories and a high data rate interface, this 6U-VME64x/VXS module is not
only a dead-time free digitization unit but also has huge numerical
capabilities provided by the implementation of a Virtex5-SXT FPGA. Fast
algorithms implemented in the FPGA may be used to disentangle possible pile-up
pulses and determine timing information from sampled pulse shapes with a time
resolution better than 50 ps.
