An FPGA based demonstrator for a topological processor in the future ATLAS L1-Calo trigger “GOLD”

Abstract: The existing ATLAS trigger consists of three levels. The level 1 (L1) is an FPGAs based custom designed trigger, while the second and third levels are software based. The LHC machine plans to bring the beam energy to the maximum value of 7 TeV and to increase the luminosity in the coming years. The current L1 trigger system is therefore seriously challenged. To cope with the resulting higher event rate, as part of the ATLAS trigger upgrade, a new electronics module is foreseen to be added in the ATLAS Level-1 Calorimeter Trigger electronics chain: the Topological Processor (TP). Such a processor needs fast optical I/O and large aggregate bandwidth to use the information on trigger object position in space (e.g. jets in the calorimeters or muons measured in the muon detectors) to improve the purity of the L1 triggers streams by applying topological cuts within the L1 latency budget. In this paper, an overview of the adopted technological solutions and the R&D activities on the demonstrator for the TP (“GOLD”) are presented.