A new signal processing platform for radio astronomy

School of Maths and Physics, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 21, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia e-mail: ahotan@utas.edu.au

Received: 15 January 2008
Accepted: 7 April 2008

Abstract

Context. We describe the concept, construction, and testing of TasPGA, a new, versatile digital signal processing device designed for radio astronomy applications.

Aims. A minimalist design philosophy was used to develop a general-purpose radio astronomy instrument based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology. The design emphasises reliability and flexibility, facilitating the rapid development of new FPGA firmware for a wide range of experiments.

Methods. Hardware and firmware for TasPGA were designed using software provided by Altium Ltd. and Xilinx Inc. We tested the instrument by implementing a Fourier transform spectrometer capable of dividing 100 MHz of bandwidth into 16 384 channels.

Results. We present data taken with a TasPGA spectrometer at the Mt. Pleasant radio observatory, including the spectra of two astronomical methanol masers.