Abstract
After the current LHC shutdown (2019-2021), the ATLAS experiment will be required to operate in an increasingly harsh collision environment. To maintain physics performance, the ATLAS experiment will undergo a series of upgrades during the shutdown. A key goal of this upgrade is to improve the capacity and flexibility of the detector readout system. To this end, the FrontEnd Link eXchange (FELIX) system has been developed. FELIX acts as the interface between the data acquisition; detector control and TTC (Timing, Trigger and Control) systems; and new or updated trigger and detector front-end electronics. The system functions as a router between custom serial links from front end ASICs and FPGAs to data collection and processing components via a commodity switched network. The serial links may aggregate many slower links or be a single high bandwidth link. FELIX also forwards the LHC bunchcrossing clock, fixed latency trigger accepts and resets received from the TTC system to front-end electronics. FELIX uses commodity server technology in combination with FPGA-based PCIe I/O cards. FELIX servers run a software routing platform serving data to network clients. Commodity servers, connected to FELIX systems via the same network, run the new multi-threaded Software Readout Driver (SW ROD) infrastructure for event fragment building, buffering and detector-specific processing to facilitate online selection. This presentation will cover the design of FELIX and the results of the installation and commissioning activities for the full system.
Highlights
Over the decade, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will undergo a series of upgrades to maximise its discovery potential for new physics processes, towards a final stage known as High-Luminosity LHC or HL-LHC
As part of the re-evaluation of the architecture of the data acquisition (DAQ) system, it became clear that the evolution of technology made it possible to move tasks which were previously performed in customised hardware into the more flexible firmware and software domains
As a culmination of this new approach, the Front-End LInk eXchange (FELIX) system has been developed as the primary detector interface between the front-end electronics and the DAQ system
Summary
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will undergo a series of upgrades to maximise its discovery potential for new physics processes, towards a final stage known as High-Luminosity LHC or HL-LHC. With FELIX in place, all data processing, formatting and monitoring tasks previously performed in custom hardware will be able to take place in software running in commodity server farms, a facility known as the Software Readout Driver (SW ROD). The first set of systems to be upgraded to use FELIX and the SW ROD will be those undergoing significant detector or readout upgrades during the 2019-2021 experimental shutdown ahead of the third major LHC data-taking period (Run 3). These are the New Muon Small Wheels (NSW) [3], Liquid Argon (LAr) digital readout [4] and the calorimeter hardware trigger electronics (L1Calo) [2]. Results of the most recent performance testing will be presented along with the prospects for installation and commissioning in early 2020
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