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<h1 style="text-align: center;">The CERN Trajectory Measurement System</h1>

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<img style="width: 300px; height: 229px;" alt="CERN PS Machine" src="ps.jpg" align="right">This project was carried out with <a icon="externalLink" href="http://www.alpha-data.com/">Alpha Data Ltd</a> and involved the
design, construction, commissioning,&nbsp;support and maintenance of a
new trajectory measurement system for the <a icon="externalLink" href="http://public.web.cern.ch/public/">CERN</a> Proton Synchrotron.<br>

The TMS system was designed to measure
the<b> </b>trajectory of particle beam's within the CERN Proton
Synchrotron. It is able to measure the amplitude, x/y displacement
and timing of the individual particle bunches as they pass each of the
40
analogue sensors in the ring. The system integrates the data received
for each particle bunch and stores the results in memory for later
data access. In order to accurately measure the particle bunches the
system uses, FPGA implemented, digital phase locked loops to
synchronise the data capture to the
incoming data.
<p style="font-weight: normal;">The system continuously samples 120
Analogue channels at 125MHz, 14 bits and processes this data in
real-time to determine information on the position of particle
bunches as they orbit at around 437kHz. The system captures and
processes around 15 billion samples per second. Multiple Xilinx
Vertex 4 FPGA's are employed in a modular system to capture and
process the data. The system is controlled over a Gigabit Ethernet
network from which portions of the resulting data can be accessed.<br>
</p>

<h3>Design</h3>

<img style="width: 200px; height: 268px;" alt="TMS system installed at CERN" src="Tms.jpg" align="left">
The TMS was designed in a modular way. At the top level there is a
Linux based host system that is responsible for control, data gathering
and communications with external system. Beneath this there are 3
single CompactPCI board computer modules, again running Linux. One of
these is situated in each 8-slot rack unit. These are responsible for
controlling and passing data from the 5 PUPE boards that do the
front-end data acquisition and real-time data processing work. We used
Concurrent Technologies
<a href="http://www.cct.co.uk/sheets/pp41003x.htm">PP 410/03x</a>
for this role. These module controllers also use the Linux OS.<br>

We have used this basic structure in a number of projects. It uses the
flexibility of PC hardware running Linux at the higher levels and the
raw processing power of FPGA's at the lower level front end to do the
real-time acquisition and initial data processing work.<br>

The software is written in 'C++' and uses a special, BEAM developed,
RPC mechanism called BOAP to perform the inter-board communications.
This uses QOS protocols to provide real time performance over the
switched Gigabit Ethernet internal network.<br>

<h3><br clear="all">
The FPGA Processing Board</h3>

<img style="width: 400px; height: 276px;" alt="PUPE FPGA Board" src="Pupe.jpg" align="right">
The FPGA processing, PUPE, board was specially designed for the system
although its capabilities would be useful in many other applications.
The boards,<span style="font-weight: normal;"> designated ACP-FX-N2/125,</span>
utilise
a Xilinx Vertex-4 FX100 FPGA, 1GByte of DDR2 SDRAM and have nine
125MHz 14bit ADC's. The boards core design is based on Alpha Data's
ADM-XRC/FX100-10/1G FPGA PMC module providing a high degree of FPGA
firmware compatibility with this hardware. The design employs a low
jitter, PLL synchronised, clock source for the ADC's. The master clock
for these can be external to the board allowing multiple boards to be
synchronised at the ADC clock level.<br>

As well as the 9 ADC inputs there is one 10MHz clock input and 13
digital I/O signal lines for timing and other system control functions.
There are an additional 8 digital lines reserved for inter-board
synchronisation.<br>

<p>The board employs a second Xilinx Virtex-4 LX25 device for Compact
PCI interface duties. This uses the PCI bus FPGA firmware as
developed by Alpha Data for their existing PMC boards. The PUPE also
has two Gigabit Ethernet PHY's with the associated RJ45 connectors on
the front panel connected directly to the FPGA. Thus either CompactPCI
or Gigabit Ethernet can be used for system communications.<br>
The FPGA firmware is written in VHDL.<br>
</p>

The board is suited to many data acquisition and processing tasks,
especially those that require a large number of analogue inputs.
Multiple boards can be connected together to handle as many analogue
data channels as required.<br>

<h3>More Information</h3>

The TMS system components can be used to produce similar data capture
and processing systems. Please contact Beam for more information at: <a href="mailto:info@beam.ltd.uk">info@beam.ltd.uk</a>.<br>

<ul>

  <li><a href="http://portal.beam.ltd.uk/support/cern/">The BEAM TMS
support website</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.cern.ch">CERN</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.beam.ltd.uk">Beam Ltd</a><br>
  </li>
  <li><a href="http://www.alpha-data.com/">Alpha Data</a><br>
  </li>
</ul>

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