FITPix data preprocessing pipeline for the Timepix single particle pixel detector

The semiconductor pixel detector Timepix contains an array of 256 ? 256 square pixels with a pitch of 55 ?m. The single quantum counting detector Timepix can also provide information about the energy or arrival time of a particle from every single pixel. This device is a powerful tool for radiation imaging and ionizing particle tracking. The Timepix device can be read-out via a serial or parallel interface enabling speeds of 100 fps or 3200 fps, respectively. The device can be connected to a PC via the USB 2.0 based interface FITPix, which currently supports the serial output of Timepix reaching a speed of 90 fps. FITPix supports adjustable clock frequency and hardware triggering which is a useful tool for the synchronized operation of multiple devices. The FITPix interface can handle up to 16 detectors in daisy chain. The complete system including the FITPix interface and Timepix detector is controlled from the PC by the Pixelman software package. A pipeline structure is now implemented in the new version of the readout interface of FITPix. This version also supports parallel Timepix readout. The pipeline architecture brings the possibility of data preprocessing directly in the hardware. The first pipeline stage converts the raw Timepix data into the form of a matrix or stream of pixel values. Another stage performs further data processing such as event thresholding and data compression. Complex data processing currently performed by Pixelman in the PC is significantly reduced in this way. The described architecture together with the parallel readout increases data throughput reaching a higher frame-rate and reducing the dead time. Significant data compression is performed directly in the hardware especially for sparse data sets from particle tracking applications. The data frame size is typically compressed by factor of 10-100.