The prototype readout chain for CBM using the AFCK board and its software components

This paper presents a prototype for the readout chain of the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment using the AFCK FPGA board as Data Processing Board (DPB). The components of the readout chain are described, followed by some test setups, all based on different flavors of AFCK-DPB. Details about the functional blocks in the different versions of the DPB firmware are given, followed by a description of the corresponding software elements.