Invited Presentation
Direct Digitization and GPU Backends: Leveraging Next-Generation DSP for the JCMT ACSIS Upgrade
Presenter: Alexander Pollak (SETI Institute)
The next generation of radio and millimeter-wave astronomical instrumentation increasingly relies on high-performance GPU-based digital signal processing to support wider bandwidths, higher data rates, and highly flexible observing modes. Recent advances in high-speed networking and direct RF digitization are creating new opportunities for simpler, more capable, and highly scalable backend architectures for both single-dish and multi-element telescopes. In this talk, I will present current technology development efforts at the SETI Institute and Breakthrough Listen aimed at advancing these GPU-based signal processing paradigms.
At the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, we are developing a new backend built around the NVIDIA Holoscan SDK and the Breakthrough Listen Accelerated DSP Engine (BLADE). This system emphasizes UDP multicast data transport and RDMA processing between digitizers, network interfaces, GPUs, and high-speed storage. Concurrently, we are evaluating new direct RF high-speed digitizers, including Mercury’s 64 Gsps EB-RFS1140, to simplify the analog signal chain. Our goal is to support dual-polarization digitization with greater than 10 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth at 8 to 14 bits, ultimately capturing signals directly across the 1 to 20 GHz range.
By leveraging this extensive R&D pipeline, we can define a clear, low-risk path toward upgrading the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope’s ACSIS backend. I will outline a two-stage approach for JCMT: first, replacing the current digitizers with HCRO-developed RFSoC-based 16-input modules alongside new network infrastructure and GPU servers; and second, transitioning to full direct RF sampling once a candidate digitizer platform is packaged into deployable 19-inch rack-mounted modules.
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