AMC13Tool Common Procedures

Actions
Update Firmware
Initialize AMC13
Send Local Triggers
Send Data over the DAQLink
Read Out Data

Update Firmware using AMC13Tool

• Make sure that you have the latest firmware files for both the Spartan and Virtex chips by downloading the latest '.mcs' files from here, if needed e.g.

     cd ~/amc13_mcs
     wget http://physics.bu.edu/~wusx/download/AMC13/AMC13T1v0x0017_6vlx130t.mcs
     

• Go to the directory which contains the desired firmware files and run AMC13Tool from this directory e.g.

     cd ~/amc13_mcs 
     AMC13Tool.exe
     

  • NOTE: Remember this executable can be run from any directory, as long as the path to it is correctly specified. If you don't want to specify the path every time, copy the executable to your user directory's /bin folder.

          (from directory which contains AMC13Tool)
          $ cp AMC13Tool ~/bin
          

• Program the new firmware to flash memory and then load the flash to both chips:

     Pick an action (h for menu): pv
     Current Virtex firmware version: 0x14
  
     1) AMC13T1v0x000f_6vlx130t.mcs
     2) AMC13T1v0x0010_6vlx130t.mcs
     3) AMC13T1v0x0012_6vlx130t.mcs
     4) AMC13T1v0x0013_6v130t.mcs
     5) AMC13T1v0x0014_6vlx130t.mcs
     6) **AMC13T1v0x0017_6vlx130t.mcs**
  
     Select desired MCS file. Hit <CR> to select best highlighted option
     Type '1-6' to select or '0' for menu: 
     

• Check to make sure that the Current Virtex Firmware Version is not already the latest! If it is, then your firmware does not need to be updated; type '0' to return to the main menu
• Type <CR> to select the highlighted file, which is the latest-version firmware file found in the current directory

      ./AMC13T1v0x0017_6vlx130t.mcs
      WARNING: you are about to reprogram flash memory. Are you sure? (y)
     

• Type 'y' to program the flash or hit any other key to quit flash programming
• After the flash has been programmed, you should see the following message:

     Flash successfully programmed and verified.
     Load the new flash memory to the chips to complete firmware update
     

• This message indicates that the flash has been successfully programmed and verified! You are now ready to load the new firmware to the chip from flash memory.
• The same exact process should be followed to program the Spartan Flash memory, using the initial command:

      Pick an action (h for menu): ps
     

• Now that your flash memory has been successfully programmed, you are ready to load the flash to your Spartan and Virtex FPGAs:

     Pick an action (h for menu): L
     WARNING: you are about to reconfigure both spartan and virtex from flash memory. Are you sure? (y) y
     Wait 10 seconds to ensure the reconfiguration's completion:  0 
     Spartan and Virtex have been reconfigured from flash
     

• Finally, to check and make sure that the flash has been successfully loaded to the AMC13:

     Pick an action (h for menu): fv
     Virtex Firmware Version: 0x17
     Spartan Firmware Version: 0xb
     

• As we can see, the Virtex Firmware version has been updated to 0x17. Our AMC13 now has new Firmware!

Initialize AMC13

• Before enabling your AMC13, it is a good idea to reset both chips and all counters:

     Pick an action (h for menu): rg
     *** Both chips have been issued a reset ***
  
     Pick an action (h for menu): rc
     *** Virtex Counters have been issued a reset ***
     

• To enable the AMC13 from a list of inputs, use the command 'i' followed by the list of inputs to be enabled and a set of desired initialization conditions (which are specified here).
  • For example, to initialize AMCs 4 and 10 and to assert TTS backpressure, the command looks like:

       Pick an action (h for menu): i 4 10 b
       Enabling AMC inputs from list: 4, 10
       Link status: 04100410
       Stop EvB when Mon Buf Full
       'CONTROL1': 00174001
       

• Check the status of the AMC13 counters and Control registers. It should look something like this (but not exactly):

     Pick an action (h for menu): st
  
     *****AMC13 Status*****
     Status display detail level: 1
     Control 0: 0300000b
       DAQ Link Down
       DAQ Link Almost Full
       Monitor Buffer Empty
     Control 1: 00174001
       MonBuff full stops EVB
       Run Mode
     AMC Link Status: 04100410
       AMC Enabled Inputs: 04, 10
       AMC Input links locked: 04, 10
     AMC Port Status: 0be90000
       --All AMC Link Versions Correct--
       Unsynced AMC Ports: 00, 03, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 11
     EVB Counters:
                      LSCDAQ status [001b]:          000031ac
                           Run time [0048]: 00000000 04307312
                         Ready time [004a]: 00000000 0430ab94
                          Busy time [004c]: 00000000 00000001
                 L1A ovfl warn time [0050]: 00000000 00000001
     AMC Counters:
                                            <---Link 04-----> <---Link 10----->
                        AMC Ctr ACK [000e]: 00000000 00000860 00000000 00000861
                             Resend [004a]: 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000001
                         Ctr Accept [004e]: 00000000 0000086b 00000000 0000086c
                          AMC13 ACK [0050]: 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000001
     
     

• As you can see, 'Run Mode' is enabled and our 'Run time' counter is ticking away. We are now ready to accept triggers and create events
• A complete list and description of the AMC13 registers, counters, and control bits can be found here

Send Local L1As

• Make sure that the proper functionalities are enabled on the AMC13
  • To enable local triggers (and all AMC ports):

             Pick an action (h for menu): en 0-11 L
             

  • To use the local TTC signal, loop back an optical fiber cable to the bottom-most SFP connection on the AMC13 and enable the input, as well as local triggers:

             Pick an action (h for menu): en 0-11 T L
             

  • If you are not using the local signal, make sure that your external TTC fiber optic cable properly connected to the bottom-most SFP site on the front panel of your AMC13
• Send Periodic Local L1As
  1. Set the Orbit/Bunch-count/random Number spacing between L1A generations.
     • For example to send an L1A every 0x100th orbit:

                   Pick an action (h for menu): tsp 0x100
                   

       As you can see, 0x100 has been written to register 0x1c, which controls OrN trigger spacing
  2. Enable local L1As:

              Pick an action (h for menu): lt e
              

     You should now see the AMC13 L1A counter (register 0x46) incrementing
  3. To disable periodically generated local L1As:

              Pick an action (h for menu): lt d
              

     The AMC13 L1A counter should now stop incrementing
• Send Single non-periodic L1As
  1. Use the lt command followed by the number of non-periodic triggers you want to send (default to 1):

              Pick an action (h for menu): lt 100
              

Sending Data Over the DAQLink

• DAQLink (LSC and LDC) does not yet exist for the current AMC13XG (updated Sept. 19, 2013).
• Instruction for sending data over the DAQLink has been taken down to avoid confusion. If you require this information, please contact David Zou (dzou@bu.edu)

Reading out Events

ATTENTION: All owners of AMC13XG boards: Please upgrade your firmware to the latest build. All Virtex firmware versions older than 0x94 have a bug in the DDR readout controller, which may cause an IPBus transaction failure during block reads and consequently, while reading out (dumping) events.

• After you have initialized your AMC13 (as instructed here), you are ready to receive triggers and read out events.
• In the status display in the Initialize AMC13 section, the SDRAM buffer is empty, indicating that no events have been received.
• After sending 100 L1As (instructions on how to generate local triggers here), the status display should now look something like (but not exactly):

     Pick an action (h for menu): st
  
     *****AMC13 Status*****
     Status display detail level: 1
     Control 0: 03000003
       DAQ Link Down
       DAQ Link Almost Full
     Control 1: 00174001
       MonBuff full stops EVB
       Run Mode
     AMC Link Status: 04100410
       AMC Enabled Inputs: 04, 10
       AMC Input links locked: 04, 10
     AMC Port Status: 0be90000
       --All AMC Link Versions Correct--
       Unsynced AMC Ports: 00, 03, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 11
     EVB Counters:
                      SDRAM Word Ct [000d]:          00000086
                  Unread SDRAM Evts [000e]:          00000064
                      LSCDAQ status [001b]:          0000c1ac
                            L1A Ctr [0046]: 00000000 00000064
                           Run time [0048]: 00000010 78f86712
                         Ready time [004a]: 00000010 78f8af94
                          Busy time [004c]: 00000000 00000001
                 L1A ovfl warn time [0050]: 00000000 00000001
                  Tot evs monitored [0056]: 00000000 00000064
     AMC Counters:
                                            <---Link 04-----> <---Link 10----->
                         AMC Accept [0000]: 00000000 00000064 00000000 00000064
                            AMC ACK [0002]: 00000000 00000064 00000000 00000064
                   AMC EvN Mismatch [0006]: 00000000 00000064 00000000 00000064
                   AMC OrN Mismatch [0008]: 00000000 00000064 00000000 00000064
                   AMC BcN Mismatch [000a]: 00000000 0000005f 00000000 0000004d
                    AMC Received Ev [000c]: 00000000 00000064 00000000 00000064
                        AMC Ctr ACK [000e]: 00000000 0020cf2a 00000000 0020cf26
          AMC Ev Buf near full time [0016]: 00000000 00003d18 00000000 00003d38
                        Total Words [0040]: 00000000 00002ee0 00000000 00002ee0
                             Resend [004a]: 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000001
                       AMC13 Accept [004c]: 00000000 00000064 00000000 00000064
                         Ctr Accept [004e]: 00000000 0020cf36 00000000 0020cf32
                          AMC13 ACK [0050]: 00000000 00000065 00000000 00000065
                      Received Evts [0052]: 00000000 00000064 00000000 00000064
                          Read Evts [0054]: 00000000 00000064 00000000 00000064
     

• Descriptions of the AMC13 registers, counters, and control bits, can be found here
• You can see that we now have '0x64' events in the SDRAM buffer, ready to be read out
• In order to read out these events to a file for examination and further analysis use the 'df' command (whose specifics can be found here):

     Pick an action (h for menu): df test.dat
     Number of events to be dumped not specified
     Starting to dump 2048 events to file test.dat
     2000 events to go, current size= 134
     Wrote 100 to file 'test.dat'
     

• This writes the events to the file 'test.dat' in binary format. The 'df' command also offers other kinds of file dumps, which are specified here

Building Events from uHTR

• Step-by-step recipe for high rates (5Gb) test w/ AMC13 and uHTR using TTT on RatesTest page

-- CharlieHill - 19 Sep 2012