The associative memory system for the FTK processor at ATLAS

In high energy physics experiments, the most interesting processes are very rare and hidden in an extremely large level of background. As the experiment complexity, accelerator backgrounds, and instantaneous luminosity increase, more effective and accurate data selection techniques are needed. The Fast TracKer processor (FTK) is a real time tracking processor designed for the ATLAS trigger upgrade. The FTK core is the Associative Memory system. It provides massive computing power to minimize the processing time of complex tracking algorithms executed online. This paper reports on the results and performance of a new prototype of Associative Memory system.