A design framework for distributed data acquisition and triggering systems in high energy physics experiments

We present the first conceptual results in the design of an object-oriented framework that tackles recurrent problems encountered when developing acquisition and triggering systems for high-energy physics experiments. These problems include software/hardware frontier definition and the impact of both intrinsic and performance-related distribution on software development. Based on the UML (unified modeling language) extension mechanisms and a real-time CORBA (common object request broker architecture) implementation, the framework aims at providing (1) high-level concepts for flexible hardware-software separation, and (2) simple mechanisms for transparently deriving the distribution automatically from system-level definitions. The framework will therefore implement design patterns that result from our experience of HEP (high energy physics) TDAQ (trigger and data acquisition) system development.