PCI Based Read-out Receiver Card in the ALICE DAQ System

The PCI-based Readout Receiver Card (PRORC) is the primary interface between the detector data link (an optical device called DDL) and the front-end computers (PC running Linux) of the ALICE data acquisition system. This document describes the prototype architecture of the PRORC hardware and firmware, and of the PC software. The board contains a PCI interface circuit and an FPGA. The firmware in the FPGA is responsible for all the concurrent activities of the board, such as reading the DDL and controlling the DMA. The co-operation between the firmware and the PC software allows autonomous data transfer into the PC memory with little CPU assistance. The system achieves a sustained transfer rate of 100 MB/s, meeting the design specifications and the ALICE requirements.