BONUS Readout

This page contains information related to the BONUS TPC chamber readout system.

Drivers and system software

DHCP

dhcpd server must be running using config file /etc/dhcp.conf provided by CERN (copy from bonuspc1 or other configured machines)

RORC driver installation

ssh root@bonuspc2
cd /date/rorc
export DATE_MAKEFILES=/date/makefiles/

add at the beginning of GNUmakefile line
  DATE_SYS := Linux

make
make driver
make dev         # (as root)
reboot

PHYSMEM installation

cd /date/physmem
make
make driver
make dev       # (as root)
cp physmem.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/misc/ # (as root)
/sbin/depmod       # (as root)

• Edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst (as root). Pass the argument 'mem=xxxM' to the kernel to limit LINUX memory to xxxMegaBytes (xxx should be replaced by a number, in our case 1024).

• Edit the file /etc/rc.modules (as root). Add the line '/sbin/modprobe physmem physmemsize0=xxx' to limit the size of the /dev/physmem0 PHYSMEM device to xxxMegaBytes. The size of the /dev/physmem1 device will be the complement of the LINUX memory and the /dev/physmem0 memory. RORC sw test programs use /dev/physmem0, while DATE uses /dev/physmem1 memories.

chmod +x /etc/rc.modules					# (as root)

• Switch off autoupdate by the following way (as root).

/etc/rc.d/init.d/yum-autoupdate stop
 - Check /var/lock/subsys/yum-autoupdate (have to create if missing).
 - Edit /etc/sysconfig/yum-autoupdate :
   YUMUPDATE=0
   YUMONBOOT=0

• reboot

History

From:  Stephen Bueltmann <sbueltma@odu.edu> 11/30/07 14:48
Subject:  Fwd: RORC and DDL Information
To: 
       Sergey Boyarinov <boiarino@jlab.org>, David Abbott <abbottd@jlab.org>,
       Stepan Stepanyan <stepanya@jlab.org>, Howard Fenker <hcf@jlab.org>, hafidi@jlab.org
Hello All,
I am attaching a reply I received from the Hungarian company manufacturing the  
ALICE (not the TPC) side of the electronics.
As per their web site (http://www.cerntech.hu) the price for the
PCI-X RORC is 1540 Euro and for one
SIU card 615 Euro. 
The total would be 2770 Euro for a complete readout w/o RCU and w/o spares.
There seem to be special prices for CERN collaborating institutions.
Wrote to Luciano about the RCU boards but have not heard back.
Cheers,
   Stephen 
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Kiss Tivadar" <tivadar.kiss@cerntech.hu>
Date: November 30, 2007 2:35:36 PM EST
To: "'Stephen Bueltmann'" <sbueltma@odu.edu>
Subject: RE: RORC and DDL Information
Dear Stephen,  
We are pleased to receive your inquiry for DDL hardware. Of course it is possible for you to get such boards from our company. Delivery time would be cca. 1-3
monthes after receiving an order, depending on the quantity. (We have usually only a few cards on stock.)
The DIU (Destination Interface Unit) of a DDL link is now integrated on the RORC (Read-out Receiver Card). A single RORC (that is 100 MHz, 64-bit
PCI-X interaface card) has two DIUs integrated on it. Thus, for two DDL links (that is, to read out two ALICE RCUs) you need 2 SIU cards and 1 RORC card.
Please let me know how many quantities you are interested in, and what is a delivery schedule that would fit to your needs. 
Best regards, 
  Tivadar Kiss
Cerntech Ltd. 
Ulloi ut 31.
H-1091 Budapest
Hungary
tel: +36 1 216 8219)
fax: +36 20 919 5132
     From: Stephen Bueltmann [1] 
     Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 4:05 PM
     To: info@cerntech.hu
     Subject: RORC and DDL Information
     Hello, 
     I am involved with the experimental programme at Jefferson Lab
     in the US. One of the experiments is using a TPC which we are
     reading out with the ALICE TPC front end cards FECs and their
     USB readout controller (U2F).
     We are considering to change to the standard ALICE readout controller 
     (RCU) used by the ALICE TPC.
     This would require to purchase also the RORC and DDL hardware.
     Would it be possible and how long would it take to get one RORC, one
     SIU and one DIU card from you?
     Thanks in advance and
     Cheers,
     Stephen
     ---------------------------------------------------------------------
     Stephen Bueltmann
     Old Dominion University
     At ODU:   Physics Department
               4600 Elkhorn Avenue
               Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
               Telephone (757) 683-6401
               Facsimile (757) 683-5809
               sbueltma@odu.edu
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------
     ---------------------------------------------------------------------
     Stephen Bueltmann
     Old Dominion University
     At ODU:   Physics Department
         4600 Elkhorn Avenue
         Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
         Telephone (757) 683-6401
         Facsimile (757) 683-5809
         sbueltma@odu.edu

Sep 2009 NOTES for the system operations

• firmware loading:

from croctest5: ssh root@10.1.3.241 (bottm crate, top has .236), pass is 'dcs'
cd /eg6
./program rcu_170809.bit

• documentation

http://www.ge.infn.it/~minutoli/BONUS/SW/

http://www.jlab.org/~devita/eg6/

• event size (spars off, 200 threshold - no noise): 68+4+128+Nfecs

• expected rate about 1.3kHz

connections

• every crates is connected to 4 power supplies, one 4.0V and 3 3.3V

• several crates can be connected to the same power supplies

• + or - labels must be ignored, rad cable always goes to plus

• ethernets from crates goes to switch, switch is connected to the eth1 of the host machine; those connections will be used to load firmware; to get IP address crates must be off, use 'tail -f /var/log/messages' and turn crate on, message will be issued containing IP addresses:

bonuspc1(left): upper crate: 10.0.2.254, bottom crate 10.0.2.252
bonuspc2(right): upper crate: 10.1.3.242, bottom crate 10.1.3.241

• to download firmware ssh root@10.1.3.241 (etc) with password 'dcs', goto /eg6 and run command ./program rcu_170809.bit

• fibers goes from crates to RORCs; to see if RORCs are configured by Linux, use /date/rorc/Linux/rorc_find; to check connection use http://www.jlab.org/~devita/eg6/eg6_electronics.pdf

• to check FECs use command:

bonuspc1(left): /rcufec/altro-loopback/altro-loopback -N -p0 -f0 -a5 -c8 --ddl-revision=4 --ddl-channel=1 --ddl-serial=7165
bonuspc2(right): same,  --ddl-serial=6038

see /proc/rorc_map for serial and other parameters

output should looks like this

Switching on FEC 0...done.
Writing data to ALTROs for event: 1...2...3...4...done.
Reading data from ALTROs for event: 1...354 words, 2...355 words, 3...355 words, 4...355 words, done.
Verifying event: 1...2...3...4...done.
Switching off FEC 0...done.

• to check real communications do following:

cd /rcufec/fec
./fecscope
2
1,1 (rorc channel number)
3,0,0
3,0,3(the number of FECs),0,1,2
10,100,0,0,1/6

cd /date/rorc/Linux
./rorc_receive -m0 -X0 -c1 -e1
it will wait for 1 event, to issue software trigger ssh root@10.1.3.241 and type rcu-sh c 0x5306

useful docs

RCU Firmware User Manual (pdf)

ALICE Detector Data Link (DDL-RORC Library) (pdf)

ALICE TPC Readout Chip User Manual (pdf)