The paper presents an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) dedicated for readout of silicon strip detectors used for position sensitive measurements of X-rays. Requirements concerning the silicon strip detectors and the readout electronics with respect to X-ray detection are discussed briefly. Design of the ASIC and performance of the developed silicon strip detector module are presented. Application of silicon strip detectors to X-ray powder diffractometry is discussed and examples of diffractometric measurements performed using the developed detector module are presented. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.