  In this paper, we design a PXI-based, multi-channel data-acquisition system
(DAS) mainly applicable to recording one-shot fast transient pulses in nuclear
physics experiments. The system consists of one NI PXIe-1085 chassis,
containing a controller card and at most 16 data-acquisition (DAQ) cards. Every
single DAQ card has a sampling rate of 1GS/s and a 12bit vertical resolution
with the PXI interface and SFP+ transceiver for data transmission. When the
system is put into operation near the pulsed radiation source, the SFP+ optical
fiber channel enables a timely data transmission to a remote server. All of
these cards in the chassis can be synchronized using PXI timing and triggering
resources. Additionally, a simple DAS software is developed to display the
pulsed signals captured and communicate with the host PC for remote control and
data upload. After careful calibration, preliminary tests show that every DAQ
channel achieves an analog bandwidth higher than 200MHz and an ENOB of more
than 9 bits at a 1GS/s sampling rate. Owing to such high speed and resolution,
the system may facilitate improvements in extracting maximum information from
transient signals. Furthermore, with great scalability and high-speed data
transmission, the system can be used for other nuclear physics experiments.
