RD21: test of a silicon data-driven trigger processor

Abstract

RD21 is a continuation of an R&D program to demonstrate the use of a planar silicon microvertex detector for triggering on the topology of heavy flavor events in a forward hadron-collider experiment. The RD21 project builds upon the successful P238 test of such a detector run very close to the circulating beams at the SPS-Collider. The specific goal of the RD21 project discussed here was to interface the P238 silicon system to a data-driven processor capable of performing complex calculations in real time and test the viability of the COBEX heavy-flavor topology trigger. We describe the processor and report on some results from a May 1994 test run.