Journal Article/Contribution to a conference proceedings

GSI-2026-00231

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png A high-throughput input interface for the CBM FLES

Hutter, D. (Corresponding author) ; de Cuveland, J. ; Lindenstruth, V.GSI*

2025
EDP Sciences Les Ulis

Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1051/epjconf/202533701220  doi:10.15120/GSI-2026-00231

Abstract: The CBM First-level Event Selector (FLES) serves as the central data processing and event selection system for the upcoming CBM experiment at FAIR. Designed as a scalable high-performance computing cluster, it facilitates online analysis of unfiltered physics data at rates surpassing 1 TB/s.As the input to the FLES, the CBM detector subsystems deliver free-streaming, self-triggered data to the common readout interface (CRI), which is a custom FPGA PCIe board installed in the FLES entry nodes. A subsystem-specific part of the FPGA design time-partitions the input streams into context-free packages. The FLES interface module (FLIM), a component of the FPGA design, acts as the interface between the subsystem-specific readout logic and the generic FLES data distribution. It transfers the packed detector data to the host’s memory using a low-latency, high-throughput PCIe DMA engine. This custom design enables a shared-memory-based, true zero-copy data flow.A fully implemented FLIM for the CRI board is currently in use within CBM test setups and the FAIR Phase-0 experiment mCBM. We present an overview of the FLES input interface architecture and provide performance evaluations under synthetic as well as real-world conditions.

Note: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

---

Contributing Institute(s):

1. CBM (CBM)
2. Collaboration FAIR: CBM (CBM@FAIR)

Research Program(s):

1. 612 - Cosmic Matter in the Laboratory (POF4-612) (POF4-612)
2. 05P21RFFC1 - Verbundprojekt 05P2021 (ErUM-FSP T06) - Aufbau von CBM bei FAIR: Bau des First-Level Event Selectors (FLES) für das CBM-Experiment an FAIR (BMBF-05P21RFFC1) (BMBF-05P21RFFC1)

Experiment(s):

1. External experiment at external facility/ no experiment at GSI (other)

---

Database coverage:
; ; ; ; DOAJ Seal ; SCOPUS

---