A custom monolithic circuit has been developed for the Time Expansion Chamber (TEC) of the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). This detector identifies particles by sampling their ionization energy loss (dE/dx) over a 3 cm drift space and by detecting associated transition radiation (TR) photons. The requirement of being simultaneously sensitive to dE/dx and TR events requires a dual-gain system. We have developed a compact solution featuring an octal preamplifier/shaper (P/S) IC with a split gain stage. The circuit, fabricated in 1.2 m CMOS process, incorporates a trans-impedance preamplifier and a 70 ns unipolar CR-RC 4 shaper with ion tail compensation and active DC offset cancellation. Digitally selectable gain, peaking time, and tail cancellation as well as channel-by-channel charge injection and disable can be configured in the system via a 3-wire interface. The 3.5 x 5 mm 2 die is packaged in a fine-pitch 64p...