A commodity solution based high data rate asynchronous trigger system for hadron collider experiments

We show how commodity CPU, networking and memory components greatly simplify a sophisticated trigger system designed for the demanding environment of a high data rate hadron collider experiment operating at 2 x [10.sup.32] [cm.sup.-2][s.sup.-1]. The trigger system is based on an 8-fold way, 3-level architecture capable of processing over 22 million data channels at a crossing rate of 2.5 MHz with a mean value of 6 interactions per crossing. Although originally designed for a B-physics experiment at the Tevatron, the flexible and highly scalable nature of the design should also be relevant to other next generation hadron collider experiments such as those at the LHC. Index Terms--Data acquisition, elementary particles, real time systems.