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We have implemented a cost-effective design for the readout electronics of both the anode wires and the cathode pads of large area proportional wire chambers for the HERA-B muon system based on the ASD-08 integrated circuit. To control and monitor the large number of readout channels, we have built a distributed control system based on Philips Semiconductors' [I.sup.2]C bus and microcontrollers. To date we have installed about 10800 channels of muon chambers and electronics. The average single channel noise occupancy is less than [10.sup.-5], and the detectors have been operated with target interaction rates as high as 70 MHz.

The muon detector of the HERA-B experiment at DESY (Hamburg, Germany) is a gaseous detector that provides muon identification in a high-rate environment. Pairs of muons with an invariant mass in the region of the J/[psi] meson ensure the first-level trigger for the experiment. Three different types of gas proportional chambers are employed: tube, pad, and pixel. The muon detector is fully installed and has been continuously running since November 1999. A clear signal for J/[psi], [right arrow] [mu][mu] is reconstructed from data taken during the commissioning run. Design of the muon system as well as experience gained with detector commissioning are presented in this paper. The severe radiation environment of the HERA-B experiment leads to a maximum charge deposit on a wire, within the muon detector, of 200 mC/cm per year. We report recent results of aging studies performed by irradiating proportional wire chambers filled with Ar/[CF.sub.4]/[CH.sub.4] and Ar/[CF.sub.4]/[CO.sub.2] mixtures under various conditions. These results show that aging rates obtained by irradiating a small region of the wire with a radioactive source cannot be extrapolated to the irradiation of large areas in an environment of hadronic interactions. Our experience shows that the aging rate depends not only on the total collected charge but also on the mode of operation and area of irradiation.