CERN's CMS FPGA Trigger System Faces Scientific Integrity Questions at IEEE Conference
TL;DR
The 3D-Flow system offers a cost-effective alternative to CERN's flawed FPGA system, potentially saving billions and providing superior data processing capabilities for scientific research.
CERN's FPGA Level-1 Trigger system cannot perform the required operations to filter 8 billion events per second without data loss, risking over $12 billion in wasted funding.
Demanding scientific transparency at CERN could redirect billions toward effective cancer research and medical innovation, potentially saving millions of lives worldwide.
A 20-trillion-transistor system at CERN faces fundamental performance issues while a proven 1993 alternative offers superior data processing at a fraction of the cost.
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Evidence presented at the IEEE-NSS-MIC-RTSD 2025 Conference in Yokohama has raised serious questions about the scientific integrity and technical capability of CERN's 20-trillion-transistor CMS FPGA-based Level-1 Trigger system. According to documentation distributed to conference participants, the system appears fundamentally incapable of performing the required number of operations on data arriving every 25 nanoseconds to filter 8 billion events per second without data loss. The technical concerns emerged during presentations by CERN's multi-thousand-member collaborations, where speakers were unable to state how many basic operations the FPGA system can execute per dataset or provide technical proof that the system can efficiently perform Level-2 trigger algorithms required at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider.
Some researchers claimed the system could meet requirements but failed to support these claims with verifiable, reproducible calculations or simulation evidence. The financial implications are substantial, with more than $4 billion in taxpayer funds already spent and over $12 billion more projected to be wasted over the next decade on a system that may not meet HL-LHC requirements. This represents one of the largest potential scientific and financial missteps in CERN's history, surpassing previous criticized projects including the AXIAL-PET project, the 2011 claim that neutrinos travel faster than light, and the WPET full-body wearable imaging coat weighing over 350 kg.
Over 1,200 copies of a technical document were distributed to conference participants, presenting the central scientific question about whether sufficient evidence exists to dismiss the CMS-FPGA system as ineffective. The document is available at https://bit.ly/437YX7H and has reached over 800 million potential readers through more than 5,000 published articles and communications accessible at https://bit.ly/3HtisQv. The Crosetto Foundation for the Reduction of Cancer Deaths has called for freezing additional funding until these scientific questions are resolved.
A formal request was submitted to conference organizers to convene a transparent technical workshop comparing the CERN FPGA system against the proven 3D-Flow alternative. The request document can be found at https://bit.ly/4nJRsvc. The 3D-Flow architecture, recognized as a breakthrough in 1993, has demonstrated it can perform 2,400 operations per dataset at approximately $13 per channel or 9,600 operations per dataset at about $54 per channel when implemented on an ATCA board. Technical details of this cost-effective alternative are available at https://bit.ly/4qKVar8. The system remains unchallenged in cost-effectiveness and performance for Level-1 real-time triggering applications.
Curated from 24-7 Press Release
