Remote data recording and processing for NA48

Direct fibre dataDirect data links have been installed to connect the NA48 experiment to the CERN Computer Centre for remote data-recording, 3 level filtering, and online event reconstruction on the Meiko CS-2 and the central CORE services. The Meiko CS-2 is a European parallel and scaleable supercomputer installed at the CERN Computer Centre in the framework of the EC-supported, Espirit Project P7255, GPMIMD2. This computer is a key element of the NA48 data acquisition system because of its parallel and scaleable I/O capability, parallel file system, and large computing capacity (in excess of 1600 CERN computing units.) This sophisticated data acquisition system was necessitated by the experiment's high data rate (7 Mbytes/sec initially and 19 Mbytes/sec in 1997) and high volume (40 Tbytes of raw data in the 120 days of physics run foreseen in 1997). By recording the data remotely at the Computer Centre, the experiment will be able to profit from ongoing technological progress in tape recording and tape library technology, which are extremely important in coping with the above-mentioned online data requirements. (author)