This article describes a custom VHDL firmware implementation of a two-dimensional cluster-finder architecture for reconstructing hit positions in the new vertex pixel detector (VELO) that is part of the LHCb Upgrade. This firmware has been deployed to the existing FPGA cards that perform the readout of the VELO, as a further enhancement of the DAQ system, and will run in real time during physics data taking, reconstructing VELO hits coordinates on-the-fly at the LHC collision rate. This pre-processing allows the first level of the software trigger to accept a 11% higher rate of events, as the ready-made hits coordinates accelerate the track reconstruction and consumes significantly less electrical power. It additionally allows the raw pixel data to be dropped at the readout level, thus saving approximately 14% of the DAQ bandwidth. Detailed simulation studies have shown that the use of this real-time cluster finding does not introduce any appreciable degradation in the tracking performance in comparison to a full-fledged software implementation. This work is part of a wider effort aimed at boosting the real-time processing capability of HEP experiments by delegating intensive tasks to dedicated computing accelerators deployed at the earliest stages of the data acquisition chain.

翻译：本文描述了一种用于LHCb升级项目中新型顶点像素探测器（VELO）击中位置重建的二维团簇寻找架构的定制VHDL固件实现。该固件已部署至执行VELO读出任务的现有FPGA板卡，作为数据采集（DAQ）系统的进一步增强功能，将在物理数据采集期间实时运行，以LHC对撞频率在线重建VELO击中坐标。这种预处理使得软件触发第一级能够接受比原始方案高11%的事件率，因为预生成的击中坐标加速了径迹重建过程，同时功耗显著降低。此外，它允许在读出级别丢弃原始像素数据，从而节省约14%的DAQ带宽。详细仿真研究表明，与完整的软件实现相比，这种实时团簇寻找在径迹性能方面未引入任何可察觉的退化。本研究属于更广泛的工作范畴，旨在通过将密集型计算任务委托给部署在数据获取链最早期阶段的专用计算加速器，提升高能物理实验的实时处理能力。