The PHENIX Experiment at RHIC

The physics emphases of the PHENIX collaboration and the design and current status of the PHENIX detector are discussed. The plan of the collaboration for making the most effective use of the available luminosity in the first years of RHIC operation is also presented.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Further details of the PHENIX physics program available at http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/phenix

Development of a front end controller/heap manager for PHENIX

A controller/heap manager has been designed for applicability to all detector subsystem types of PHENIX. the heap manager performs all functions associated with front end electronics control including ADC and analog memory control, data collection, command interpretation and execution, and data packet forming and communication. Interfaces to the unit consist of a timing and control bus, a serial bus, a parallel data bus, and a trigger interface. The topology developed is modular so that many functional blocks are identical for a number of subsystem types. Programmability is maximized through the use of flexible modular functions and implementation using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Details of unit design and functionality will be discussed with particular detail given to subsystems having analog memory-based front end electronics. In addition, mode control, serial functions, and FPGA implementation details will be presented

PHENIX on-line systems

The PHENIX On-Line system takes signals from the Front End Modules (FEM) on each detector subsystem for the purpose of generating events for physics analysis. Processing of event data begins when the Data Collection Modules (DCM) receive data via fiber-optic links from the FEMs. The DCMs format and zero suppress the data and generate data packets. These packets go to the Event Builders (EvB) that assemble the events in final form. The Level-1 trigger (LVL1) generates a decision for each beam crossing and eliminates uninteresting events. The FEMs carry out all detector processing of the data so that it is delivered to the DCMs using a standard format. The FEMs also provide buffering for LVL1 trigger processing and DCM data collection. This is carried out using an architecture that is pipelined and deadtimeless. All of this is controlled by the Master Timing System (MTS) that distributes the RHIC clocks. A Level-2 trigger (LVL2) gives additional discrimination. A description of the components and operation of the PHENIX On-Line system is given and the solution to a number of electronic infrastructure problems are discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

PHENIX detector overview

The PHENIX detector is designed to perform a broad study of A-A, p-A, and p-p collisions to investigate nuclear matter under extreme conditions. A wide variety of probes, sensitive to all timescales, are used to study systematic variations with species and energy as well as to measure the spin structure of the nucleon. Designing for the needs of the heavy-ion and polarized-proton programs has produced a detector with unparalleled capabilities. PHENIX measures electron and muon pairs, photons, and hadrons with excellent energy and momentum resolution. The detector consists of a large number of subsystems that are discussed in other papers in this volume. The overall design parameters of the detector are presented. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved