The S-LINK in the data sources for trigger demonstrators in the LHC environment
The hardware for the data sources to be used in the ATLAS trigger demonstrator programme has been designed and built. As a basic element, the SLATE2 module has been used. The S-LINK protocol, as a transfering data standard, has been chosen. A cheap implementation of the S-LINK, the "Parallel Electrical S-LINK", has been built. Featuring all the specification laid down in the standard it uses a parallel twisted pair copper cable as a physical layer. A standard SCSI cable has been used. Both the Source and Destination Cards have the same PCB layout. The link may receive 32-bit wide data words at max 40 MHz input rate. Running with 40 MHz link clock, it outputs 32-bit data at a rate of 20 MHz, giving total a bandwidth of 80 MB/s. We report on main characteristics of this implementation. The SLATE2SLINK card has been built to interface the SLATE motherboard to the S-LINK environment. This daughter card is capable to house and independently control 3 S-LINK sites. Running with the 25 MHZ SLATE's clock and 32-bit data, it features total a bandwidth up to 300 MB/s.