  The Time-of-Flight system is a proposed addition to the STAR detector
currently installed at RHIC. The proposal is based on a new technology called
the Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chamber (MRPC), and consists of approximately
23,000 channels of detectors distributed over 120 trays. Each TOF tray consists
of 192 detector channels and three different types of electronic circuit cards,
called "TFEE", "TDIG", and "TCPU", listed in order of the data flow. Every
fourth tray also contains a "TMIT" card that transmits the data over a fiber to
the TDRC which is part of STAR DAQ. The TFEE contains the analog front end
electronics. The output of TFEE is passed to the TDIG, where the data are
digitized (using the CERN HPTDC ASIC). The TCPU formats and buffers the digital
detector information. This formatted data is passed to TMIT, which transmits it
over an optical fiber to the data receiver TDRC in the STAR DAQ room. The
architecture of this readout chain and DAQ will be described, and first results
from prototypes of the component boards will be discussed.
