Oxford signs up RFEL for SKA design study
1 min read
The University of Oxford has signed an initial study contract with RFEL that covers the design of an FPGA based signal processing architecture for the channelisation and beam forming functions in the antenna processing hardware for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
The study involves the creation of a configurable, fixed point Matlab model, where channelisation parameters and beam forming strategies can be entered. Stimulus can then be presented to the model to allow performance to be monitored against immediate feedback of FPGA resource usage and power dissipation for any given design configuration.
Alex Kuhrt, RFEL's CEO, said: "We are delighted to have been awarded this contract. This is a highly prestigious, international project with around 100 organisations from 20 countries participating in the design and development. We will be able to draw on our previous work on solutions for radio telescopes, such as for the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy."
Oxford University is a member of the Low Frequency Aperture Array (LFAA) consortium, which is working with the SKA Organisation to build the world's largest radio telescope. The antennae will be located in Australia and Africa to form a radio telescope with a total collecting area of one square kilometre. The SKA will exceed the image resolution quality of the Hubble Space Telescope by a factor of 50, whilst imaging areas of sky ten times faster than existing facilities.
pic: SKA Organisation
