High speed continuous DAQ system for readout of the ALICE SAMPA ASIC

During the Long Shutdown 2 of CERN's LHC, foreseen to start in 2018, the ALICE experiment will upgrade its TPC detector to cope with the higher Pb-Pb collision-rate in the next running phase. In the upgraded TPC, Gas Electron Multiplier technology and continuous readout will replace the existing Multi-Wire Proportional chambers and triggered readout system. The Gas Electron Multiplier signals will be processed using a new custom mixed-signal front-end chip named SAMPA. The first version of SAMPA was delivered in 2014 and the production of the final version is in progress. This article gives an overview of the data acquisition system design used for testing the first version of SAMPA and its performance results with SAMPA coupled to a GEM detector prototype.