The artificial retina for track reconstruction at the LHC crossing rate
  We present the results of an R&D study for a specialized processor capable of precisely reconstructing events with hundreds of charged-particle tracks in pixel and silicon strip detectors at $40\,\rm MHz$, thus suitable for processing LHC events at the full crossing frequency. For this purpose we design and test a massively parallel pattern-recognition algorithm, inspired to the current understanding of the mechanisms adopted by the primary visual cortex of mammals in the early stages of visual-information processing. The detailed geometry and charged-particle's activity of a large tracking detector are simulated and used to assess the performance of the artificial retina algorithm. We find that high-quality tracking in large detectors is possible with sub-microsecond latencies when the algorithm is implemented in modern, high-speed, high-bandwidth FPGA devices. 
A. Abba, F. Bedeschi, M. Citterio, F. Caponio, A. Cusimano, A. Geraci,   P. Marino, M. J. Morello, N. Neri, G. Punzi, A. Piu...
physics.ins-det hep-ex