AXIe for Physics

By Steve Narciso, AXIe Consortium

AXIe should find wide acceptance in the high energy physics community as it offers many key benefits in applications such as shock, plasma, particle, and nuclear physics. We expect many COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) signal conditioning, acquisition, and processing modules in a wide range of signal bandwidths will become available from a range of suppliers. AXIe’s large board footprint and power available to the module payload allows higher density in a 19” rack space, allowing for high-performance signal conditioning, A-to-D conversion, and data processing, while offering channel count scalability inherent in modular systems. Flexible channel synchronization between modules is provided by AXIe’s dual triggering structures: a parallel trigger bus and radially-distributed, time-matched, point-to-point trigger lines. Inter-module communication is also provided by a local bus between adjacent modules, allowing data transfer rates up to 10 Gb/s in each direction, for example, between front-end digitizer modules and DSP banks.

In single-shot, event based applications, the AXIe standard can provide increased measurement security over traditional modular formats. With optional secondary redundant power supplies and cooling fans, an AXIe chassis could virtually eliminate downtime for the measurement systems around all important experimental events.

The large board footprint and supplied power, along with the open architecture of the standard, make AXIe a perfect environment for custom module development for specific and unique applications.

The AXIe form factor provides the power and cooling necessary to embed high performance computing. Many AdvancedTCA COTS compute blades are available today to provide low cost alternatives to the development of custom signal processing modules. The availability of both LAN and PCIe fabrics allow interconnection between modules, as well as high industry-standard high-performance data paths to external host computers.

AXIe builds on test and measurement industry standards such as PXI® (www.pxisa.org), IVI® (www.ivifoundation.org), and LXI® (www.lxistandard.org). These standards enable AXIe systems to integrate easily with other modular and box test and measurement systems.

For more information, see the AXIe for Physics presentation on the AXIe Consortium website.