Margaret Votava

BTeV trigger/DAQ innovations

BTeV was a proposed high-energy physics (HEP) collider experiment designed for the study of B-physics and CP Violation at the Tevatron at Fermilab. BTeV included a large-scale, high-speed trigger and data acquisition (DAQ) system, reading data from the detector at 500 Gbyte/s and writing data to mass storage at a rate of 200 Mbyte/s. The design of the trigger/DAQ system was innovative while remaining realistic in terms of technical feasibility, schedule and cost. This paper will give an overview of the BTeV trigger/DAQ architecture, highlight some of the technical challenges, and describe the approach that was used to solve these challenges

Data acquisition systems at Fermilab

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.

BTeV Trigger/DAQ Innovations

BTeV was a proposed high-energy physics (HEP) collider experiment designed for the study of B-physics and CP Violation at the Tevatron at Fermilab. BTeV included a large-scale, high-speed trigger and data acquisition (DAQ) system, reading data from the detector at 500 Gbyte/s and writing data to mass storage at a rate of 200 Mbyte/s. The design of the trigger/DAQ system was innovative while remaining realistic in terms of technical feasibility, schedule and cost. This paper will give an overview of the BTeV trigger/DAQ architecture, highlight some of the technical challenges, and describe the approach that was used to solve these challenges

The Main Injector Beam Position Monitor Front-End Software

The front‐end software developed for the Main Injector (MI) BPM upgrade is described. The software is responsible for controlling a VME crate equipped with a Motorola PowerPC board running the VxWorks operating system, a custom‐made timing board, and up to 10 commercial digitizer boards. The complete MI BPM system is composed of 7 independent units, each collecting data from 19 to 38 BPM pickups. The MI BPM system uses several components already employed on the successful upgrade of another Fermilab machine, the Tevatron, The front‐end software framework developed for the Tevatron BPM upgrade is the base for building the MI front‐end software. The framework is implemented in C++ as a generic component library (GBPM) that provides an event‐driven data acquisition environment. Functionality of GBPM is extended to meet MI BPM requirements, such as the ability to handle and manage data from multiple cycles; perform readout of the digitizer boards without disrupting or missing subsequent cycles; transition bet...

The new Tevatron beam position monitor front-end software

The Tevatron is a proton anti-proton accelerator collider operating at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The machine is currently delivering beam for the CDF and DO experiments, which expect increasing luminosity until the conclusion of Run II, planned for 2009. The laboratory defined a plan for achieving higher luminosity, and one of the tasks is the upgrade of the accelerators beam position monitor (BPM). The Tevatron was built during the early eighties and some of its control systems, including the BPMs, are still the original ones. This paper describes the front-end software of the Tevatron BPM upgrade, from the requirements to the implementation, and the underlying hardware setup. The front-end software designed is presented, emphasizing its modularity and reusability, allowing it to be applied to other Fermilab machines

A System for Exchanging Control and Status Messages in the NOvA Data Acquisition

In preparation for NOvA, a future neutrino experiment at Fermilab, we are developing a system for passing control and status messages in the data acquisition system. The DAQ system will consist of applications running on approximately 450 nodes. The message passing system will use a publish-subscribe model and will provide support for sending messages and receiving the associated replies. Additional features of the system include a layered architecture with custom APIs tailored to the needs of a DAQ system, the use of an open source messaging system for handling the reliable delivery of messages, the ability to send broadcasts to groups of applications, and APIs in Java, C++, and Python. Our choice for the open source system to deliver messages is EPICS. We will discuss the architecture of the system, our experience with EPICS, and preliminary test results.