Abstract
During the next major shutdown from 2019-2020, the ATLAS experiment at the LHC at CERN will adopt the Front-End Link eXchange (FELIX) system 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. FELIX will function as a router between custom serial links from front end ASICs and FPGAs to data collection and processing components via a commodity switched network. Links may aggregate many slower links or be a single high bandwidth link. FELIX will also forward the LHC bunch-crossing clock, fixed latency trigger accepts and resets received from the TTC system to front-end electronics. The FELIX system uses commodity server technology in combination with FPGA-based PCIe I/O cards. The FELIX servers will run a software routing platform serving data to network clients. Commodity servers connected to FELIX systems via the same network will run the new Software Readout Driver (SW ROD) infrastructure for event fragment building and buffering, with support for detector or trigger specific data processing, and will serve the data upon request to the ATLAS High-Level Trigger for Event Building and Selection. This proceeding will cover the design and status of FELIX and the SW ROD.
Highlights
The ATLAS detector [1] is one of the two general purpose detectors located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN
The functionality that is currently provided by dedicated electronics and firmware will be moved to software running on commodity servers
The High-Level Trigger (HLT), the system used for control/configuration/monitoring and Detector Control System (DCS) will continue running on commodity servers after the upgrade and will communicate via a commodity Ethernet network
Summary
The ATLAS detector [1] is one of the two general purpose detectors located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The functionality that is currently provided by dedicated electronics and firmware will be moved to software running on commodity servers This is made possible by advancements in computer technology and a radiation hard GigaBit Transceiver (GBT) link technology, developed by CERN [8]. The Front-End LInk eXchange (FELIX) will use the GBT protocol over standard optical links and transceivers to route data and commands (including TTC) between electronics on the ATLAS detector and commodity servers. The detector-specific data processing, which previously occurred on custom RODs, will be implemented in customizable Data Handler software applications on the SW RODs. The HLT, the system used for control/configuration/monitoring and DCS will continue running on commodity servers after the upgrade and will communicate via a commodity Ethernet network. The legacy and new readouts will exist after LS2 and will be replaced by the FELIX only readout after LS3
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