BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
The 3.8 km circumference Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL has been in operation since 2000. An electron-ion collider (eRHIC), which is in the design phase, plans to use one of the existing ion rings and new electron rings constructed in the existing tunnel to provide collisions of up to 21.2 GeV electrons with up to 100 GeV gold ions, 250 GeV polarized protons, as well as other species. Many new real-time systems will be required to satisfy the needs of eRHIC, including over 2000 beam position monitors, 1000 beam loss monitors, 18 current monitors, feedback systems, controls for about 10,000 power supplies, machine protection system, new beam timing systems, and more. The selected architecture must be flexible, expandable, cost-effective, reliable, and easy to maintain. Interface with existing and new accelerator timing systems is required, and compatibility with existing infrastructure and equipment must be maintained. Embedded modules based on the Xilinx Zynq gate array, with direct Ethernet connection and on-board Linux, housed in multi-slot chassis (VME, VPX, TCA, etc.) is under consideration. Preliminary design concepts for the architecture will be presented.
