A fast hardware tracker for the ATLAS trigger system

The Fast Tracker (FTK) processor is an approved ATLAS upgrade that will reconstruct tracks using the full silicon tracker at Level-1 rate (up to 100 KHz). FTK uses a completely parallel approach to read the silicon tracker information, execute the pattern matching and reconstruct the tracks. This approach, according to detailed simulation results, allows full tracking with nearly offline resolution within an execution time of 100 mu s. A central component of the system is the associative memories (AM); these special devices reduce the pattern matching combinatoric problem, providing identification of coarse resolution track candidates. The system consists of a pipeline of several components with the goal to organize and filter the data for the AM, then to reconstruct and filter the final tracks. This document presents an overview of the system and reports the status of the different elements of the system.