Operation and performance of a new microTCA-based CMS calorimeter trigger in LHC run 2

In LHC (Large Hadron Collider) Run 2, the center-of-mass energy for proton-proton collisions is 13 TeV and the instantaneous luminosity has doubled. This has made it more challenging to trigger on interesting events since the number of interactions per crossing (pileup) is significantly larger than in LHC Run 1. The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment has installed, commissioned, and is operating the second stage of a two-stage upgrade to the Calorimeter Trigger. This upgrade has improved the trigger algorithms so that the trigger thresholds remain low and physics data is not compromised. The stage-1, which replaced the original CMS Global Calorimeter Trigger, operated successfully in 2015. The completely new stage-2 has replaced the entire calorimeter trigger in 2016 with AMC form-factor boards and optical links operating in a microTCA chassis. It required that updates to the calorimeter back-ends, the source of the trigger primitive data, were also fully installed and operational. The stage-2 system's boards use Xilinx Virtex-7 690T FPGAs and have hundreds of links operating at up to 10 Gbps to maximize data throughput. In addition, a new time-multiplexed architecture was implemented and extensive firmware and software development was necessary. The final commissioning, operation, and performance of the stage-2 calorimeter trigger in 2016 proton collisions are described.