Speaker
Dr
Jim Hoff
(Fermilab)
Description
Hardware-based pattern recognition for fast triggering on particle tracks has been successfully used in high-energy physics experiments for some time. The CDF Silicon Vertex Trigger (SVT) at the Fermilab Tevatron is an excellent example. The method used there, developed in the 1990’s, is based on algorithms that use a massively parallel associative memory architecture to identify patterns efficiently at high speed. However, due to much higher occupancy and event rates at the LHC, and the fact that the LHC detectors have a much larger number of channels in their tracking detectors, there is an enormous challenge in implementing fast pattern recognition for a track trigger, requiring about three orders of magnitude more associative memory patterns than what was used in the original CDF SVT. Scaling of current technologies is unlikely to satisfy the scientific needs of the future, and investments in transformational new technologies need to be made.
In this paper, we will discuss a new concept of using the emerging 3D vertical integration technology to significantly advance the state-of-the-art for fast pattern recognition within and outside HEP. Adding a “third” dimension to the signal processing chain, as compared to the two-dimensional nature of printed circuit boards, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), etc., opens up the possibility for new architectures that could dramatically enhance pattern recognition capability. While our focus here is on the Energy Frontier (e.g. the LHC), the approach may have applications in experiments in the Intensity Frontier and the Cosmic Frontier as well as other scientific and medical projects.
A generic R&D proposal [1] based on this new concept, with a few institutions involved, has recently been submitted to DOE with the goal to design and perform the ASIC engineering necessary to realize a prototype device. The progress of this R&D project will be reported in the future. Here we will only focus on the concept of this new approach.
Reference [1]: Development of 3D Vertically Integrated Pattern Recognition Associative Memory (VIPRAM), FERMILAB-TM-2493-CMS-E-PPD-TD.
http://hep.uchicago.edu/~thliu/projects/VIPRAM/VIPRAM_DOE_LAB11-438-V2-submit.pdf
Author
Dr
Tiehui Ted Liu
(Fermilab)
