A sub-set of ATA over Ethernet as the control protocol in xTCA

Both ATLAS and CMS are considering xTCA as replacement for VME based systems in their upgrades. An ethernet based protocol is an agnostic choice for module control in both ATCA and uTCA. A sub-set of the simple storage area network protocol ATA over ethernet could satisfy the requirements for module configuration and control without incurring the overheads of running IP on an FPGA. Members of the RAL ATLAS and CMS trigger groups are investigating implementing this sub-set in the first instance using a Xilinx development board and replacing the UDP/IP layer in the existing CMS IPBus protocol.