A new PCI card for readout in high energy physics experiments

Recently some high energy physics experiments started to adopt readout systems based on the PCI architecture. In this context a new PCI card that can be adapted to several readout schemes has been designed. The card contains a large 64 MB local buffer, programmable FPGA logic and a PLX PCI bridge. The solution to use a PCI bridge external to the programmable logic allows to greatly simplify projects at the level of the on-board local bus. The card is presently used as the basic readout unit of the NA60 experiment. In this context, coupling it to different mezzanine cards it is possible to create interfaces to VME/CAMAC modules or to custom front-end electronics as for the case of the silicon vertex detector. Moreover, it is used as a readout test system for the ALICE muon chambers.