TileCal ROD Hardware and Software Requirements

In this paper we present the specific hardware and firmware requirements and modifications to operate the Liquid Argon Calorimeter (LiArg) ROD motherboard in the Hadronic Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) environment. Although the use of the board is similar for both calorimeters there are still some differences in the operation of the front-end associated to both detectors which make the use of the same board incompatible. We review the evolution of the design of the ROD from the early prototype stages (ROD based on commercial and Demonstrator boards) to the production phases (ROD final board based on the LiArg design), with emphasis on the different operation modes for the TileCal detector. We start with a short review of the TileCal ROD system functionality and then we detail the different ROD hardware requirements for options, the baseline (ROD Demo board) and the final (ROD final high density board). We also summarize the performance parameters of the ROD motherboard based on the final high density option and show some results from the different system tests and testbeams at CERN. A detailed map of the different hardware modifications over the original LiArg design is summarized in the Appendix.