This gives a short description of progress on the BRAHMS construction over the last couple of months.

• Magnets
• TPC electronics
• TPC chamber
  

Magnets.

• The coils for D1, D2 and D5 has been engineered and designed. The steel design for D1 and D5 is in progress. A bid package was put together for D1 and send to vendors in August. The bids were opened on September 25 and a bid for two coils and one spare was 32,500$. The coil design is such that a single coil can replace either the top or bottom coil in case of failure. The procurement is expected to take 12-16 months.

1. TPC electronics.

• The MOU with STAR was signed in late July securing that BRAHMS can use the TPC electronics developed for the STAR over the last years. Initially we will receive from the first batch 18 qFEE cards and one readout board, likely in November or December. The remaining channels approximately 3000 channels will be fabricated together with the STAR main production run during 1997.

• The development of a simple trigger-clock VME module for the readout control has started. A software package has been ordered to deal with implementation of XILINK parts both for this module and for the receiver modules and changes to the READOUT boards.

• TPC chamber

• The prototype chamber for M-TPC1 build last winter in Strasbourg was tested during in secondary beam during April and May. It was instrumented with ALEPH electronics borrowed from NA49, and read into the ALEPH event builder and onto the SUN SPARC station. The readout was coordinated with the readout of 4 Driftchambers and scintillation paddles placed in the beam line to serve as trigger and determination of the tracks. The gas was a mixture of Ar and CO2 (90/10) which has a drift velocity of 1.8-2 cm/microsec at the applied drift fields of 250-300 V/cm.
• A small gas handling system was put together for the test.
  
• The drift velocity monitor chamber has been designed by R. Debbe and E. Baker. It is currently being tested in the laboratory.