Wojciech Zabolotny

Warsaw University of Technology · Institute of Electronic Systems

Accurate clock and time distribution is a key requirement for self-triggered streaming data acquisition in the CBM experiment. This distribution is handled by the Timing and Fast Control (TFC) system by clock forwarding and broadcasting the common time over latency-deterministic optical links in a hierarchical FPGA network. The point-to-point optic...

Triggerless data acquisition systems (DAQs) require that the data stream is transmitted from multiple links and into the processing node. The short input data words must be concentrated and packed into the longer bit vectors the output interface (e.g., PCI Express) uses. In that process, the unneeded data must be eliminated, and a dense stream of u...

Triggerless Data Acquisition Systems (DAQs) require transmitting the data stream from multiple links to the processing node. The short input data words must be concentrated and packed into the longer bit vectors the output interface (e.g., PCI Express) uses. In that process, the unneeded data must be eliminated, and a dense stream of useful DAQ dat...

This paper focuses on the problem of high-performance streaming random number generation in the range of uniform and normal distributions in FPGAs. Our work is focused on lightweight implementation, suitable for a wide range of FPGAs. First, we review the existing types of random generation modules. Next, in this paper we present the construction o...

A Modular COsmic Ray Detector (MCORD) was prepared for use in various physics experiments. MCORD detectors can be used in laboratory measurements or can become a part of large measurement sets. MCORD can be used as a muon detector, a veto system, or a tool supporting the testing and calibration of other detectors. MCORD can also work as a stand-alo...

The concentration of data from multiple links to a single output is an essential task performed by High-Energy Physics (HEP) Data Acquisition Systems (DAQs). At high and varying data rates combined with the large width of the concentrator’s output interface, this task is non-trivial. A high-speed dense packing of data from possibly non-continuous s...

Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR; CBM Progress Report 2022, CBM Collaroration; Editor Peter Senger, Co-editor Volker Friese; Reviewers: C. Blume, S. Chattopadhyay, J. de Cuveland, I. Deppner, D. Emschermann, V. Friese, J. Heuser, C. Höhne, M. Kis, C. Müntz, I. Selyuzhenkov, P. Senger, C. Sturm, A. Toia; Published 2022 by GSI Helmholt...

Timing and Fast Control (TFC) system for the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment is being developed with focus on low and deterministic data transmission latency. This helps to minimize data corruption in the free-streaming Data Acquisition (DAQ) system during occasional data bursts caused by the expected beam intensity fluctuations. Proven...

The concentration of data from multiple links to a single output is an essential task performed by High-Energy Physics (HEP) Data Acquisition Systems (DAQs). At high and varying data rates combined with the large width of the concentrator’s output interface, this task is non-trivial. This paper presents a concentrator based on the Beneš network, wh...

FPGA-based cards for data concentration and readout are often used in data acquisition (DAQ) systems for high-energy physics experiments. The DMA engines implemented in FPGA enable efficient data transfer to the processing system’s memory. This paper presents a versatile DMA engine. It may be used in systems with FPGA-equipped PCIe boards hosted in...

FPGA-based cards for data concentration and readout are often used in data acquisition (DAQ) systems for high-energy physics experiments. The DMA engines implemented in FPGA enable efficient data transfer to the processing system’s memory. This paper presents a versatile DMA engine. It may be used in systems with FPGA-equipped PCIe boards hosted in...

FPGA-based cards for data concentration and readout are often used in data acquisition (DAQ) systems for high-energy physics experiments. The DMA engines implemented in FPGA enable efficient data transfer to the processing system’s memory. This paper presents a versatile DMA engine. It may be used in systems with FPGA-equipped PCIe boards hosted in...

FPGA-based cards for data concentration and readout are often used in data acquisition (DAQ) systems for high-energy physics experiments. The DMA engines implemented in FPGA enable efficient data transfer to the processing system’s memory. This paper presents a versatile DMA engine. It may be used in systems with FPGA-equipped PCIe boards hosted in...

The data acquisition and processing concept of CBM is a novel and mandatory part of the programme since the anticipated signatures cannot be extracted by means of a conventional, triggered acquisition system. The Online Systems (Part I) Technical Design Report contains the description of the hardware and FPGA design which forms the basis of the CBM...

2021 was again a year under pandemic conditions, with restrictions hindering our daily work in the laboratories and in the offices. Nevertheless, we reached important milestones towards the realization of the CBM experiment: The Technical Design Report for the MVD was approved by FAIR in December 2021. The STS team successfully carried out several...

TheNuclotron-based IonCollider fAcility (NICA) is under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), with commissioning of the facility expected in late 2022. The Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) has been designed to operate at NICA and its components are currently in production. The detector is expected to be ready for data taking...

Compressed Baryonic Matter, Progress Report 2021, Contribution by Institute of Electronic Systems, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland ; CBM experiment at GSI/FAIR, Darmstadt, Germany; In 2021 the work was mainly concentrated on the continued development and maintenance of fundamental components of the CRI firmware. Address Generator for Wishb...

The STS-MUCH-XYTER (SMX) chip is a front-end ASIC dedicated to the readout of Silicon Tracking System (STS) and Muon Chamber (MUCH) detectors in the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment. The production of the ASIC and the front-end boards based on it is just being started and requires thorough testing to assure quality. The paper describes t...

Modern DAQ systems typically use the FPGA-based PCIe cards to concentrate and deliver the data to a computer used as an entry node of the data processing network. This paper presents a QEMU-based methodology for the co-development of the FPGA-based hardware part, the Linux kernel driver, and the data receiving application. This approach enables qui...

Preprint - ArXiv:2202.08970; The Nuclotron-base Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) is under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), with commissioning of the facility expected in late 2022. The Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) has been designed to operate at NICA and its components are currently in production. The detector is expecte...

Inner Tracking System, MPD - ITS TDR v.1.0, February 2022, Technical Design Report; The Nuclotron-base Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) is under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), with commissioning of the facility expected in late 2022. The Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) has been designed to operate at NICA and its compon...

Soft X-ray (SXR) radiation emitted from tokamak plasmas contains very useful information about plasma stability, shape and impurity content, all key parameters to improve plasma performance. In the deuterium-tritium phase of ITER, the high neutron fluxes, gamma and hard X-ray emission will constitute too harsh an environment to permit the use of cl...

The GBTX ASIC is a standard solution for providing fast control and data readout for radiation detectors used in HEP experiments. However, it is subject to export control restrictions due to the usage of radiation-hard technology. An FPGA-based GBTX emulator (GBTxEMU) has been developed to enable the development of GBT-based readout chains in count...

This report presents a concept of constructing a detector dedicated for detection of muons observed during measurements carried out at the MPD (Multi-Purpose Detector) detector that is currently under construction at the NICA facility, Russia, Dubna. It has been proposed to design and build an additional detector that will complement the current MP...

FPGA-based data acquisition and processing systems play an important role in modern high-speed, multichannel measurement systems, especially in High-Energy and Plasma Physics. Such FPGA-based systems require an extended control and diagnostics part corresponding to the complexity of the controlled system. Managing the complex structure of registers...

The SMX chip is a front-end ASIC dedicated to the readout of STS and MUCH detectors in the CBM experiment. The production of the ASIC and the front-end boards based on it is just being started and requires thorough testing to assure quality. The paper describes the SMX tester based on a standard commercial Artix-7 FPGA module with an additional sim...

FPGA-based data acquisition and processing systems play an important role in modern high-speed, multichannel measurement systems, especially in High-Energy and Plasma Physics. Such FPGA-based systems require an extended control and diagnostics part corresponding to the complexity of the controlled system. Managing the complex structure of registers...

Modern DAQ systems typically use the FPGA-based PCIe cards to concentrate and deliver the data to a computer used as an entry node of the data processing network. This paper presents a QEMU-based methodology for the co-development of the FPGA-based hardware part, the Linux kernel driver, and the data receiving application. That approach enables qui...

Currently, public safety is threatened by emergencies related to broadly understood terrorism, natural disasters and technical failures or related to mass events, public gatherings and state or religious ceremonies and other situations causing risks that may lead to losing control over the course of events. It makes the police take specific actions...

The GBTX ASIC is a standard solution for providing fast control and data readout for 18 radiation detectors used in HEP experiments. However, it is subject to export control restrictions 19 due to the usage of radiation-hard technology. An FPGA-based GBTX emulator (GBTxEMU) has 20 been developed to enable the development of GBT-based readout chains...

The GBTX ASIC is a standard solution for providing fast control and data readout for radiation detectors used in HEP experiments. However, it is subject to export control restrictions due to the usage of radiation-hard technology. An FPGA-based GBTX emulator (GBTxEMU) has been developed to enable the development of GBT-based readout chains in count...

TWEPP 2021: The SMX chip is a front-end ASIC dedicated for the readout of STS and MUCH detectors in the CBM experiment.The production of the ASIC and the front-end boards based on it is just being started and requires thorough testing to assure the quality. The paper describes the SMX tester based on a standard commercial Artix-7 FPGA module with a...

Large area triple GEM chambers will be employed in the first two stations of the MuCh system of the CBM experiment at the upcoming Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research FAIR in Darmstadt/Germany. The GEM detectors have been designed to take data at an unprecedented interaction rate (up to 10 MHz) in nucleus-nucleus collisions in CBM at FAIR. Rea...

Large area triple GEM chambers will be employed in the first two stations of the MuCh system of the CBM experiment at the upcoming Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research FAIR in Darmstadt/Germany. The GEM detectors have been designed to take data at an unprecedented interaction rate (up to 10 MHz) in nucleus-nucleus collisions in CBM at FAIR. Rea...

jats:title>Abstract The muon trigger system of the CMS experiment uses a combination of hardware and software to identify events containing a muon. During Run 2 (covering 2015–2018) the LHC achieved instantaneous luminosities as high as 2 × 10 34 while delivering proton-proton collisions at √(s) = 13. The challenge for the trigger system of the CMS...

Monografia: Monika Maciąg, Izabela Mołdoch-Mendoń, (edit), Badania i osiągnięcia z zakresu nauk przyrodniczych, Tygiel, Lublin 2021; Chapter: MCORD - detektor promieniowania kosmicznego w projekcie NICA-MPD; pp.190-203; MCORD - cosmic radiation detector in NICA-MPD Project; W Zjednoczonym Instytucie Badań Jądrowych w Dubnej rozpoczęto budowę...

The GBTX ASIC is a standard solution for providing fast control and data readout for radiation detectors used in HEP experiments. However, it is subject to export control restrictions due to the usage of radiation-hard technology. To enable the development of GBT-based readout chains in countries, where the original GBTX can't be imported, an FPGA-...

This paper introduces a robust approach for pin to port assignment in multi-board field-programmable gate array designs. The problem has been known for a long time and is especially annoying in relatively large data acquisition systems, such as data acquisition and control systems for high energy physics experiments, where hundreds of differential...

Against the odds, important milestones have been reached on the way towards the realization of the CBM experiment: the Technical Design Report for the MVD has been submitted, the Engineering Design Review for the module and ladder assembly of the STS has been passed, important reviews of mechanical parts incl. the absorbers of the MUCH and of the...

Data Acquisition Systems in the CBM; FPGA-related development for CBM DAQ; Compressed Baryonic Matter Experiment at FAIR/GSI Darmstadt; Continuation of the DPB firmware development In the first half of 2020, the development was significantly focused on the maintenance and improvement of the DPB firmware. The beam tests have exposed the problem...

The GBTX chip is widely used in high-energy experiments. However, due to export restrictions, it cannot be used in NICA. There is significant synergy in building readout chains for CBM and NICA experiments. To fully utilize this synergy, it is important to emulate the essential GBTX functionality in FPGA. For that purpose, the emulator of GBTX (GBT...

This contribution outlines the first preliminary acquisition data obtained by the GEM diagnostics on WEST. It was designed to monitor the radiation of impurities with a particular focus on the challenges of the elaborated plasma imaging technology in the area of SXR radiation. The details of the developed diagnostics and preliminary results obtaine...

The Operational Data Aggregation Platform (PADO) is an innovative technical solution that integrates modern ICT techniques with advanced hardware architecture based on a modular design. Its task is to integrate data from many different observational systems of the Border Guard (BG). The basic function of PADO is to increase the safety and effective...

At the start of Run 2 in 2015, the LHC delivered proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. During Run 2 (years 2015–2018) the LHC eventually reached a luminosity of 2.1× 10³⁴ cm⁻²s⁻¹, almost three times that reached during Run 1 (2009–2013) and a factor of two larger than the LHC design value, leading to events with up to a mea...

MCORD - The MPD Cosmic Ray Detector at NICA; NICA - Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAсility at JINR/Dubna; JINR - Joint Institute for Nuclear Research; The cosmic ray detector for the NICA collider; European Physical Journal; EPJ Conferences, vol.239, September 2020, art.no.07004; Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) is a main part of a New Ion Colli...

The pandemic crisis has significantly complicated the teaching of electronics in universities. The necessity to work remotely has disabled access to the hardware labs. In the teaching of embedded systems, the possibility of working with real hardware is really important. Fortunately, the embedded computer system itself may be efficiently emulated w...

The Mega-Science project NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) is under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna. The MultiPurpose Detector (MPD) is part of this complex, as a main physics experiment operating there. It aims to study the phase diagram of QCD matter at maximum baryonic density, determine the na...

Compressed Baryonic Matter Experiment 2019; Firmware development for CBM DAQ, CBM Progress Report 2019; Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR; Data acquisition in the Compressed Baryonic Experimet at FAIR; The work on the GBTx emulator (GBTxEMU) started in 2018 [1] was continued in 2019. The hardware platform was still the TE0-712 mod...

CBM - Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR, Progress Report 2019; The exploration of the QCD phase diagram at high net-baryon densities is one of the most fascinating aspects of modern nuclear physics, as it links laboratory heavy-ion collisions to cosmic objects and phenomena like neutron stars, supernova explosions, and neutron star m...

The Mega-Science project NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) is under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna. The MultiPurpose Detector (MPD) is part of this complex, as a main physics experiment operating there. It aims to study the phase diagram of QCD matter at maximum baryonic density, determine the na...

The FPGA-implemented data acquisition and processing systems are usually configured via local bus providing access to internal control and status registers. Management of the address space of that local bus is a well known and non-trivial problem, especially in complex hierarchical systems. Even though various solutions have been already proposed,...

Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR, CBM Progress Report 2018; An experimental project like CBM necessarily comprises a vast number of activities in many different areas: research on detector technology, development of readout electronics and components for data acquisition, computing and software tools for data processing and physics...

The GBTX chip is widely used in high-energy experiments. However, due to export restrictions, it can't be used in NICA. There is significant synergy in building readout chains for CBM and NICA experiments. To fully utilize this synergy, it is important to emulate the essential GBTX functionality in FPGA. For that purpose, the emulator of GBTX (GBTx...

This paper presents the data acquisition system for GEM-detector (Sauli in Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A Accel Spectrom Detect Assoc Equip 386(2–3): 531–534, 1997. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(96)01172-2) based cameras and spectrometers (Chernyshova et al. in Fusion Eng Des, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2017.03.107). The s...

Gas electron multiplier (GEM) detectors (Sauli in Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res A 805:2–24, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2015.07.060 (special issue in memory of Glenn F. Knoll); Buzulutskov in Instrum Exp Tech 50(3):287–310, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0020441207030013) are widely used for detection of ionizing radiation. When used in th...

Initialization, control and debugging of FPGA-based systems may be significantly simplified by the availability of a local CPU capable of executing simple programs. In most cases, those programs must be compiled on the host computer and transferred in the binary form to the CPU. The described solution uses the Forth-oriented CPU implemented in HDL....

The presentation describes the implementation of the Overlap Muon Track Finder algorithm using the High-Level Synthesis (HLS). That algorithm has been previously implemented in a highly optimized VHDL code. Therefore, comparison of the implementations based on VHDL code, and on HLS provides an assessment of the suitability of HLS for implementation...

This paper presents feasibility studies in utilizing graphics processing units (GPUs) as high‐performance computing hardware with front‐end electronics in high‐scale magnetic confinement thermal fusion experiments. The objective of the research is to provide scalable, high‐throughput, and low‐latency measurements for the runtime tokamak metallic im...

MCORD - MPD Cosmic Ray Detector a new features; EPJ; The main detector system at the Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) located in Dubna, Russia is the Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD). For better calibration reason, the MPD needs an additional trigger system for an off-beam calibration of MPD sub-detectors and for rejection (veto) of cosmi...

Compressed Baryonic Matter Experiment at FAIR/GSI; Proc.SPIE 10808; The Common Readout Interface (CRI) is an important component of the new architecture of readout and DAQ chain for CBM. The paper presents the results of preliminary analysis and experiments performed to assess the possibility to implement the CRI firmware in the selected prototy...

MCORD: MPD cosmic ray detector for NICA, Proc.SPIE 10808; Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) is a part of Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) located in Dubna, Russia. For full functionality, the MPD needs an additional trigger system for off-beam calibration of MPD subdetectors and for rejection of cosmic ray particles (mainly muons). The sys...

GBT oriented firmware for Data Processing Boards for CBM; The Data Processing Boards are the important component of the development version of the CBM readout system. Even though in the final version they will be replaced with the new Common Readout Interface PCIe boards, they are still used for development and testing of new firmware features an...

GBT oriented firmware for Data Processing Boards for CBM; General organization of the DPB firmware According to the DPB functions in the readout chain, the DPB firmware contains the following main components, as shown in figure. • The IPbus controller and the general infrastructure (e.g. clock generators). The IPbus interface provides the possibi...

A measurement systems based on GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier) detectors is developed for X-ray diagnostics of tokamak plasmas. The multi-channel setup is designed for evaluation the X-ray source distribution in energy, space and time. The paper deals with the development of a fast analysis and elaboration of collected data, including charge cluster...

The slides present the implementation of the streaming heapsort algorithm using the High-Level Synthesis (HLS). Results of synthesis in different configurations are compared with the reference implementation based on heavily optimized HDL code. Obtained results are used for evaluation of High-Level Synthesis as a method of implementation of data pr...

This article presents a novel software-defined server-based solutions that were introduced in the fast, real-time computation systems for soft X-ray diagnostics for the WEST (Tungsten Environment in Steady-state Tokamak) reactor in Cadarache, France. The objective of the research was to provide a fast processing of data at high throughput and with...

Readout system architecture in the CBM experiment; ELEKTRONIKA, vol.59, no.5/2018, p.8-17; Systemy elektroniczne dla toru odczytu danych w eksperymencie CBM; CBM is a new high energy physics (HEP) built to study new states of matter of very high density. Article presents architecture and design features of data acquisition (DAQ) chain, with spe...

ELEKTRONIKA, vol.59, no.5/2018, p.8-17; Systemy elektroniczne dla toru odczytu danych w eksperymencie CBM; CBM jest nowym eksperymentem fizyki wysokich energii (HEP) budowanym w celu badania stanów materii o bardzo dużej gęstości. Artykuł przedstawia budowę i rozwiązania technologiczne systemu akwizycji danych (DAQ), ze szczególnym uwzględnieni...