A White Rabbit-Synchronized Accurate Time-Stamping Solution for the Small-Sized Cameras of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
| Autor: | Maurice Stephan, Javier Diaz, Jorge Sanchez-Garrido, David Berge, Manuel Rodríguez-Álvarez, Miguel Jimenez-Lopez, A. Balzer, H. Prokoph, Antonio Jurado |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Ethernet
Coprocessor Computer science Cherenkov telescope array (CTA) Context (language use) Synchronization IEEE 1588 field-programmable gate array (FPGA) timing Electrical and Electronic Engineering Instrumentation Direct memory access Cherenkov radiation computer.programming_language business.industry Node (networking) Hardware description language Cherenkov Telescope Array White Rabbit (WR) direct memory access (DMA) time-to-digital converter (TDC) Camera business computer synchronization Computer hardware |
| DOI: | 10.1109/tim.2020.3013343 |
| Popis: | This article presents the Zynq-embedded node for the Cherenkov telescope array (ZEN-CTA) node, a programmable system-on-chip (SoC) with White Rabbit (WR)-synchronization capability. It targets a solution for the uniform clock and trigger time-stamping module of the small-sized telescopes in the CTA. This module is tasked as a distributed acquisition device with a focus on obtaining time stamps for candidate Cherenkov events, which could be generated at potentially high rates from very-high-energy gamma rays and their subsequent distribution over Ethernet. In this context, the customized design of the ZEN-CTA node is examined thoroughly, including its generic implementation aspects and its main functional blocks. The design of the WR-assisted time-to-digital converters (TDCs) for time-stamping analog triggers is presented in detail alongside the implementation of an upgraded high-speed data path (1 Gb/s) for the WR-compatible Ethernet interfaces of the node. The new data path will feature a direct memory access engine for direct software transmissions and a hardware description language (HDL) coprocessor for high-speed forwarding. Next, the time-stamping accuracy of the WR-enhanced TDCs will be characterized alongside the forwarding efficiency of the new data path. Finally, conclusions are drawn, and the main contributions of this research are enumerated, a potential deployment within the CTA infrastructure to support the acquisition of Cherenkov light is considered, and additional use cases are mentioned. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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