Speaker
Description
The ESS data path for science instruments has a natural split into distinct paths for detector data and controls data. Four elements make up the detector data path (data path): Frontend electronics, readout master, event formation unit and Apache Kafka.
The data path consists of a combination of firmware (FPGA) in the first two elements and server software in the latter two elements. This allows high precision timestamping in firmware as well as flexibility in the processing of detector readouts.
The data distribution consists of a multi-port optical ring architecture in at the front ends and switched 100G Ethernet in the server infrastructure. Using Ethernet and IP addressing, data from different rings can be directed flexibly to single or multiple- servers and processes.
Finally, we use Apache Kafka which provides a fast, scalable (and ephemeral) storage.
The fundamental operation of the data acquisition system was designed between 2016 and 2017 and is expected to remain in its current form when ESS starts initial operations in early 2027.
