Development of a new first level trigger for the surface array in the Pierre Auger Observatory based on the CycloneTM Altera FPGA

The development of a new first level trigger for the surface array in the Pierre Auger Observatory is described. It utilizes the new Altera ® family CycloneTM which is available since March 2003. Different from previous and the currently used design based on the APEXTM and ACEX ® families, respectively, it offers much higher capacity of logic registers and memories, a simplified board design, lower power consumption, and lower cost. The paper describes the board design, internal structures of the programming routines, various trigger implementations and test results obtained in the laboratory.