ATLAS Level-1 Calorimeter Trigger
Hardware Progress Meeting - 27 July 1999

Minutes

Present: Eric Eisenhandler, Norman Gee, Tony Gillman, Viraj Perera, Richard Staley

1. DSS motherboard status
Viraj reported that the board finally went out for manufacture on 22nd July. We have 
paid a premium for a 10-day turnaround, and ordered six boards. Initially only two will 
be loaded to check board design/layout.
The boards will be tested first by James et al. in Lab 12, using Kithsiri’s diagnostic 
software, and then sent to Birmingham for Richard et al. to carry out system tests, 
starting in late August.
It is hoped that the Drawing Office will now be free to resume work on the CMC G-link 
Tx card that was put on hold several weeks ago.

2. ROD prototype specifications
The revised specifications document is now available from Viraj. Once Norman has 
read it through, the review panel will be “invited” to re-visit it, as it has undergone 
radical revision since the original version. Assuming all is well, it will then be posted on 
to the web.

3. TCM prototype specifications
Viraj expects to complete the final (revised) specifications document by July 30th, at 
which time it will be posted on to the web with the review summary document.

4. CP ASIC specifications
Viraj has sent an e-mail to Alan requesting a meeting in August to discuss the best 
procedure for defining the cluster-finding algorithms. This is a crucial step in writing 
the specifications of the ASIC (or FPGA). It is hoped that this piece of work will be 
concluded by the end of August, so that a date for the PDR can be given to the ATLAS 
Executive Board for their next milestones review in September, as recently requested by 
the Trigger/DAQ Steering Group.

5. CPM prototype specifications document
Richard reported that he will begin to assemble a document framework along the lines 
of the standard RAL PDR document format. He already has a draft document containing 
a lot of useful detail, but also with a number of “holes” – areas where more discussion is 
needed to decide between different options, etc. He will compile a list of these 
discussion points, and on future Hardware Progress meeting days we will devote some 
time to “brain-storming” sessions, where one or more of these areas will be presented by 
Richard and then discussed.

6. CMM/HCM prototype specifications (& SMM ideas)
Norman reported that he is preparing a draft framework for a design specification, 
which will be circulated to the Mainz and Stockholm groups for their input. Engineering 
detail will be supplied by Viraj. 
As recently proposed by Uli, it is possible that this module might also perform the role 
of Sum Merger module, which could prove very attractive. The implications of this 
further unification (I/O bandwidth, multi-linear energy ranges, latency, etc.) need a lot 
more thought at this stage, and during the subsequent telephone conference with Uli and 
Sam it was agreed that block diagrams would be drawn up to show the comparative 
functionality of the CMM and SMM. Further studies of these other technical points will 
be circulated by e-mail over the next few weeks, and we will plan to hold another 
telephone conference towards the end of August.

7. Backplane connectors (& telephone conference agenda)
At present, the JEP and CP systems are planning to use different backplane connectors – 
7-row AMP Z Pack and 5-row BERG respectively. It is felt that we should agree on a 
single solution, so a telephone conference had been arranged to discuss the pros and 
cons of these two approaches. The 7-row AMP solution is favoured because it allows a 
3:4 ratio of ground:signal pins, compared to a 1:4 ratio for the BERG solution, but at the 
expense of an approximate doubling of the module insertion force. During the telephone 
conference it was decided that more manufacturer information was needed on insertion 
forces and also some more study on ground-bounce effects. We will keep each other 
informed by e-mail, and expect to hold another telephone conference before the end of 
August.

8. TDR measurements on JEM-2 LVDS traces
Tony noted that there are suitable multi-GHz scopes available at RAL and Birmingham, 
but he had not yet located an appropriate fast pulse generator, with sub-100ps risetime.

9. Any other business
There was none.

* Next meeting - Tuesday 17th August at 12.00 in CR02, R1 at RAL.

Tony Gillman