Processing LOFAR telescope data in real time on a Blue Gene/P supercomputer

This paper gives an overview of the LOFAR correlator. Unlike traditional telescopes, the correlator is implemented in software, yielding a very flexible and reconfigurable instrument. The term "correlator" understates its capabilities: it filters, corrects, coherently or incoherently beam...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Romein, J. W., Mol, J. D., van Nieuwpoort, R. V., Broekema, P. C.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Bandwidth
Delay
Imaging
Pipelines
Software
Supercomputers
Telescopes
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:This paper gives an overview of the LOFAR correlator. Unlike traditional telescopes, the correlator is implemented in software, yielding a very flexible and reconfigurable instrument. The term "correlator" understates its capabilities: it filters, corrects, coherently or incoherently beam forms, dedisperses, and transforms the data as well. It supports several observation modes, even simultaneously. The high data rates and processing requirements compel the use of a supercomputer; we use a Blue Gene/P. The software is highly optimized and achieves extremely good computational performance and bandwidths, increasing the performance of the entire LOFAR telescope.
DOI:10.1109/URSIGASS.2011.6051270