CryoPAF Signal Processor
The pulsar and fast radio burst search instrument processes signals from the cryogenically cooled phased array feed (CryoPAF), developed by CSIRO and designed for telescopes like Murriyang, CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope.
The CryoPAF signal processor interfaces with the CryoPAF beam-former, which outputs 72 dual-polarisation beams, each with a total bandwidth of 921 MHz channelized into ~14.8 kHz voltage channels, oversampled by 32/27 and quantised with 16 bits per sample. The maximum data acquisition rate is 280 Gb/s.
The signal processing software executes on six servers, each equipped with two 100Gb Mellanox NICs and four A10 GPUs that are connected via 100Gb switching infrastructure.
The signal processor implements five modes of operation.
High Frequency Resolution
Outputs 72 full-Stokes beams with configurable temporal and spectral resolutions (e.g. >~1 second sampling and >274Hhz channels). This data stream supports continuum, galactic and extra-galactic science.
High Time Resolution
Outputs 72 full-Stokes beams with configurable temporal and spectral resolutions (e.g. ~57 microsecond sampling and 267 kHz channels). This data stream enables the next generation of pulsar surveys and real-time fast radio burst searches.
Ultra-High Frequency Resolution
Up to 8 full-Stokes beams can be produced with configurable temporal and spectral resolutions (e.g. ~1 second sampling and ~274 Hz channels). This data stream supports continuum, galactic and extra-galactic science.
Pulsar Timing
Up to 8 full-Stokes beams are processed using phase-coherent dispersion removal and pulsar longitude-resolved integration of full-polarisation data. This data stream supports high-precision pulsar timing experiments, including the international effort to detect low-frequency gravitational waves.
VLBI
Up to 8 dual-polarisation VLBI Data Interchange Format (VDIF) compatible voltage data streams are output with configurable bandwidth and bits per sample.
For both Pulsar Timing and VLBI modes of operation, the channelization performed by the CryoPAF beam-former polyphase filter bank is inverted to increase the temporal resolution.