Large Scale Experimental Diagnostic

D-TACQ shipped the first pair of ACQ2206 DAQ Appliances to the K-Star tokamak as the start of a planned upgrade to the ECEI diagnostic system

• The upgraded ECEI DAQ system will eventually comprise more than 12 units, each 48 channels, 2MSPS/channel.
• The first two units shipped at the end of March 2023.
• The ACQ2206 carrier chassis is an upgrade to the successful ACQ2106 model
  • The unit still provides the same payload capability of 6 ELF sites, but adds
  • Internal Mains PSU
  • Ugraded MGT fast comms links
• The ECEI system is fitted with the MGT483 comms module, providing the same functionality as the ACQ2106 MGT482:
  • 2 x 400MB/s Aurora->PCIe fiber links
  • (option) 1 x White Rabbit
  • (option) 1 x Ethernet 1000LX, with hardware UDP capability.
  • (option) synchronization with zero added delay for up to 5 boxes using a 4-way timing highway fanout (HDMI cables).
• Data flow on the ECEI system is using a single Aurora->PCIe fiber link, with a data rate 200MB/s. We suggest that 3 ACQ2206 boxes can be anchored by a single AFHBA404 Host Bus Adapter located in a single server-class PC chassis. Data streaming can be either direct to DRAM (easiest) or to fast disk such as nVME. 3 units each 200MB/s: aggregate rate 600MB/s
  • Assume a HOST PC with 32GB DRAM, allocate 24GB to a ramdisk for 40s capture.
  • Assume a HOST PC with 128GB DRAM, allocate 120GB to a ramdisk for 200s capture.
  • Assume a HOST PC with 32GB DRAM, 1000GB nVME ssd, capture to SSD for 1600s.

• System is also capable of live data snapshots using EPICS PV's on the main Ethernet, and of providing a decimated low latency data feed to the Plasma Control system, eg using the second MGT/PCIe port.

• Planned enhancement for the ACQ2206

  • With MGT483: UDP data offload on 10G Ethernet to 500MB/s.
  • With MGT508, DRAM increased to 16GB.