A drift chamber readout system of the DIRAC experiment at CERN is presented. The system is intended to read out the signals from planar chambers operating in a high current mode. The sense wire signals are digitized in the 16-channel time-to-digital converter boards which are plugged in the signal plane connectors. This design results in a reduced number of modules, a small number of cables and high noise immunity. The system has been successfully operating in the experiment since 1999
