106
4 Verification and Testing
System-on-Chip Board
Memory
Command and
Control Module
Clock Manager
Uart to bus
MUX
Data manager
SAMPA
High speed connector
Computer
Data
Control
GEM detector
Microprocessor
Data Server
Fig. 4.4 Schematic overview of the FPGA design showing various system blocks
is also the type of link used by the Gigabit Transceiver ASIC (GBTx). The GBTx
ASICs were also not yet available at the time of the production of the SAMPA
v1 and Altera’s FPGAs were at the time the only FPGAs that supported SLVS
receivers natively. The board has furthermore support and commercial availability
for extension-cables for connecting between the development board and a mezzanine
board, which is required for the irradiation testing. Lastly, the development board is
also available at a low cost, which lowers the entry point for people to work with
the device. Development of a fully custom FPGA board was ruled out due to the
complexity and time involved in doing the design. A picture of the SAMPA mounted
on the mezzanine board and the accompanying FPGA DAQ board is shown in Fig. 4.5.
The system, as designed, supports both the conventional method of data acquisition where a limited amount of samples are collected in a triggered fashion before
being readout, as well as continuous acquisition by using direct memory access to
an embedded Linux system with a Gigabit Ethernet connection [19, 20]. To transmit
the data from the DAQ to the controlling computer, the Gigabit Ethernet is used
since it is available on most computers and makes the system more versatile. Optionally there are two Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) connectors mounted on the
mezzanine board, to enable forwarding of data to a computer that can accept this.
A solution using PCIe or optical fibres [21] might have provided higher readout
speeds, but would require installing the card in a desktop computer or connecting it through an optical-to-electrical interface board. Crate based DAQ solutions
using VME/ATCA/µTCA/PXI are also commonly used for their high-speed capability [22], but they are more expensive and considered less versatile.
4 Verification and Testing
System-on-Chip Board
Memory
Command and
Control Module
Clock Manager
Uart to bus
MUX
Data manager
SAMPA
High speed connector
Computer
Data
Control
GEM detector
Microprocessor
Data Server
Fig. 4.4 Schematic overview of the FPGA design showing various system blocks
is also the type of link used by the Gigabit Transceiver ASIC (GBTx). The GBTx
ASICs were also not yet available at the time of the production of the SAMPA
v1 and Altera’s FPGAs were at the time the only FPGAs that supported SLVS
receivers natively. The board has furthermore support and commercial availability
for extension-cables for connecting between the development board and a mezzanine
board, which is required for the irradiation testing. Lastly, the development board is
also available at a low cost, which lowers the entry point for people to work with
the device. Development of a fully custom FPGA board was ruled out due to the
complexity and time involved in doing the design. A picture of the SAMPA mounted
on the mezzanine board and the accompanying FPGA DAQ board is shown in Fig. 4.5.
The system, as designed, supports both the conventional method of data acquisition where a limited amount of samples are collected in a triggered fashion before
being readout, as well as continuous acquisition by using direct memory access to
an embedded Linux system with a Gigabit Ethernet connection [19, 20]. To transmit
the data from the DAQ to the controlling computer, the Gigabit Ethernet is used
since it is available on most computers and makes the system more versatile. Optionally there are two Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) connectors mounted on the
mezzanine board, to enable forwarding of data to a computer that can accept this.
A solution using PCIe or optical fibres [21] might have provided higher readout
speeds, but would require installing the card in a desktop computer or connecting it through an optical-to-electrical interface board. Crate based DAQ solutions
using VME/ATCA/µTCA/PXI are also commonly used for their high-speed capability [22], but they are more expensive and considered less versatile.