An Extreme Processor for an Extreme Experiment

Abstract

Particle physics experiments stretch processing requirements to the limit, requiring the selection of extremely rare events at tens of terabytes per second. A network of 283,392 mixed-signal MIMD processors operating in parallel at 17 tbytes/s help physicists interpret data from the world's largest particle accelerator. Particle physics and heavy-ion experiments demand greater integration and fast on-detector signal processing. We believe TRD is the first system to implement complete signal digitizing, filtering, intelligent trigger processing and readout in a single on-detector chip that avoids system noise. TRD uses multiport memories as register file inputs, multiported GRFs, and a global multiport data memory. These components support high-end multiprocessing requirements under tight latency conditions. Multi-ported memories, in particular, make it possible to couple independent data streams' very efficiently. So far, the requirements for this detector have remained largely stable. The main change was to add digital filters relatively late in the design. Of course, the first weeks of measuring actual collisions at unprecedented LHC energies are the true test of our design