Data acquisition systems at Fermilab

Abstract

Experiments at Fermilab require an ongoing program of development for high speed, distributed data acquisition systems. The physics program at the lab has recently started the operation of a Fixed Target run in which experiments are running the DART data acquisition system. The CDF and DO experiments are preparing for the start of the next Collider run in mid 2000. Each will read out on the order of 1 million detector channels. In parallel, future experiments such as BTeV R&D and Mines have already started prototype and test beam work. BTeV in particular has challenging data acquisition system requirements with an input rate of 1500 Gbytes/sec into level 1 buffers and a logging rate of 200 Mbytes/sec. This paper will present a general overview of these data acquisition systems on three fronts-those currently in use, those to be deployed for the Collider Run in 2000, and those proposed for future experiments. It will primarily focus on the CDF and D0 architectures and tools.