The Track-Finding Processor for the Level-1 Trigger of the CMS Endcap Muon System

We report on the development and test of a prototype track-finding processor for the level-1 trigger of the CMS endcap muon system. The processor links track segments identified in the cathode strip chambers of the endcap muon system into complete three-dimensional tracks, and measures the transverse momentum of the best track candidates from the sagitta induced by the magnetic bending. The algorithms are implemented using SRAM and Xilinx Virtex FPGAs, and the measured latency is 15 clocks. We also report on the design of the pre-production prototype, which achieves further latency and size reduction using state-of-the-art technology. (4 refs).