Flexible custom designs for CMS DAQ

The CMS central DAQ system is built using commercial hardware (PCs and networking equipment), except for two components: the Front-end Readout Link (FRL) and the Fast Merger Module (FMM). The FRL interfaces the sub-detector specific front-end electronics to the central DAQ system in a uniform way. The FRL is a compact-PCI module with an additional PCI 64bit connector to host a Network Interface Card (NIC). On the sub-detector side, the data are written to the link using a FIFO-like protocol (SLINK64). The link uses the Low Voltage Differential Signal (LVDS) technology to transfer data with a throughput of up to 400 MBytes/s. The FMM modules collect status signals from the front-end electronics of the sub-detectors, merge and monitor them and provide the resulting signals with low latency to the first level trigger electronics. In particular, the throttling signals allow the trigger to avoid buffer overflows and data corruption in the front-end electronics when the data produced in the front-end exceeds the capacity of the DAQ system. Both cards are compact-PCI cards with a 6U form factor. They are implemented with FPGAs. The main FPGA implements the processing logic of the card and the interfaces to the variety of busses on the card. Another FPGA contains a custom compact-PCI interface for configuration, control and monitoring. The chosen technology provides flexibility to implement new features if required. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.