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arXiv · 1411.1281

The artificial retina for track reconstruction at the LHC crossing rate

A. Abba·F. Bedeschi·M. Citterio·F. Caponio·A. Cusimano·A. Geraci·P. Marino·M. J. Morello·N. Neri·G. Punzi·A. Piucci·L. Ristori·F. Spinella·S. Stracka·D. Tonelli
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Abstract

We present the results of an R&D study for a specialized processor capable of precisely reconstructing events with hundreds of charged-particle tracks in pixel and silicon strip detectors at $40\,\rm MHz$, thus suitable for processing LHC events at the full crossing frequency. For this purpose we design and test a massively parallel pattern-recognition algorithm, inspired to the current understanding of the mechanisms adopted by the primary visual cortex of mammals in the early stages of visual-information processing. The detailed geometry and charged-particle's activity of a large tracking detector are simulated and used to assess the performance of the artificial retina algorithm. We find that high-quality tracking in large detectors is possible with sub-microsecond latencies when the algorithm is implemented in modern, high-speed, high-bandwidth FPGA devices.

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A. Abba, F. Bedeschi, M. Citterio, F. Caponio, A. Cusimano, A. Geraci, P. Marino, M. J. Morello, N. Neri, G. Punzi, A. Piucci, L. Ristori, F. Spinella, S. Stracka, D. Tonelli. 2014-11-05. The artificial retina for track reconstruction at the LHC crossing rate. https://arxiv.org/abs/1411.1281

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