Deployment and future prospects of high performance diagnostics featuring serial I/O (SIO) data acquisition (DAQ) at ASDEX Upgrade

The SIO DAQ concept used at the ASDEX Upgrade fusion experiment features data acquisition from a modular front-end (a modular crate-and-interface-cards concept for analog and digital input and output) over standardized serial lines and via a serial input/output computer interface card (the SIO card) in real-time directly into the main memory of a host computer. ment of a series of diagnostics using SIO led to various solutions and configurations for the different requirements. Experience has been gained and lessons learned applying the SIO concept at its technical limits. Requirements for a further development of the SIO concept have been identified, and a performance improvement by a factor of 4–8 beyond its current limits seems achievable. An effort has been started to develop a SIO version 2 (SIO II) featuring upgraded serial links and a more powerful FPGA for merging and forwarding data streams to host computer memory. (Compatibility with the existing SIO (SIO I) front-end system has to be maintained.) aper presents results achieved and experiences gained in the deployment of SIO I, the status of SIO II development (currently in the prototype phase), and projected enhancements and updates to existing implementations.