Formation of hot nuclei with GeV p and pi(-) beams

4 pi studies of multiple charged-particle emission in GeV pi(-)- and proton-induced reactions on a Au target have been performed with the ISIS detector array. distributions yield nearly identical results for both p and pi(-) beams, suggesting an independence of hadron type in initiating the fast cascade and subsequent energy deposition in the struck nucleus. The excitation functions show little sensitivity to beam momentum, consistent with a saturation in deposition energy and the concept of limiting fragmentation. However, the intermediate mass fragment multiplicities and fragment charge distributions depend strongly on collision violence.