| Title: |
Large-scale real-time signal processing in physics experiments: the ALICE TPC FPGA pipeline |
| Authors: |
Alme, J; Alt, T; Andrei, C; Anguelov, V; Appelshäuser, H; Arslandok, M; Averbeck, R; Ball, M; Barnaföldi, GG; Becht, P; Bellwied, R; Berdnikova, A; Blidaru, B; Boldizsár, L; Bratrud, L; Braun-Munzinger, P; Bregant, M; Britton, CL; Büsching, H; Caines, H; Chatzidaki, P; Christiansen, P; Cormier, TM; Döpper, L; Ehlers, R; Fabbietti, L; Flor, F; Gaardhøje, JJ; Munhoz, MG; Garabatos, C; Gasik, P; Gera, Á; Glässel, P; Grünwald, N; Gündem, T; Gunji, T; Hamagaki, H; Harris, JW; Hauer, P; Hellbär, E; Helstrup, H; Herghelegiu, A; Herrera, HD Hernandez; Hou, Y; Hughes, C; Ivanov, M; Jäger, J; Ji, Y; Jung, J; Jung, M; Ketzer, B; Kirsch, S; Kleiner, M; Knospe, AG; Korwieser, M; Kowalski, M; Lautner, L; Lesch, M; Lippmann, C; Mantzaridis, G; Majka, RD; Marin, A; Markert, C; Masciocchi, S; Matyja, A; Meres, M; Mihaylov, DL; Miśkowiec, D; Munzer, RH; Murakami, H; Münning, K; Nassirpour, A; Nattrass, C; Nielsen, BS; Noije, WAV; Da Silva, AC Oliveira; Oskarsson, A; Oyama, K; Österman, L; Pachmayer, Y; Paić, G; Petris, M; Petrovici, M; Planinic, M; Rasson, J; Read, KF; Rehman, A; Renfordt, R; Riedel, A; Røed, K; Röhrich, D; Rubio, E; Rusu, A; Sadhu, S; Sanches, BCS; Schambach, J; Schmah, A; Schmidt, C; Schmier, A; Schweda, K |
| Source: |
Journal of Instrumentation, vol 21, iss 04 |
| Publisher Information: |
eScholarship, University of California |
| Publication Year: |
2026 |
| Collection: |
University of California: eScholarship |
| Subject Terms: |
5106 Nuclear and Plasma Physics (for-2020); 51 Physical Sciences (for-2020); 02 Physical Sciences (for); 09 Engineering (for); Nuclear & Particles Physics (science-metrix); 40 Engineering (for-2020) |
| Description: |
For LHC Run 3, the ALICE Time Projection Chamber was upgraded to operate in continuous readout mode. Interaction rates of up to 50 kHz in Pb-Pb collisions require real-time processing of more than 3 TB s-1 of raw detector data. This requirement is met by a custom FPGA-based processing pipeline that performs the complete front-end data treatment fully in-stream, including common-mode correction, pedestal subtraction, ion-tail filtering, zero suppression, and dense data packing. A central element of the design is a highly parallel common-mode correction algorithm operating directly on the streaming data. It robustly identifies signal-free readout channels on a time-bin basis and applies pad-dependent scaling to compensate for local variations in capacitive coupling in the GEM readout. In combination with pedestal subtraction and ion-tail filtering, this enables accurate baseline restoration under extreme high-occupancy conditions, preventing signal loss while efficiently suppressing noise prior to zero suppression. The pipeline operates continuously at the full detector bandwidth and reduces the raw input rate of approximately 3 TB s-1 to about 900 GBps for Pb-Pb collisions at the target interaction rate. Overall, it represents a large-scale FPGA-based real-time signal-processing implementation for high-energy physics detector readout. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| File Description: |
application/pdf |
| Language: |
unknown |
| Relation: |
qt7j80b1zm; https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7j80b1zm; https://escholarship.org/content/qt7j80b1zm/qt7j80b1zm.pdf |
| DOI: |
10.1088/1748-0221/21/04/p04013 |
| Availability: |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7j80b1zm; https://escholarship.org/content/qt7j80b1zm/qt7j80b1zm.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/21/04/p04013 |
| Rights: |
CC-BY |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.99652EDC |
| Database: |
BASE |