Focus on 128T Steven Tingay

Where are we? Prior to NSF proposal review, I prepared a contingency plan in Australia - use Australian-only (and Indian, plus remaining US) funds to complete a 128T instrument; 128T science plan approved by AAL Radio Telescope Advisory Committee (RTAC); 128T contingency plan approved by AAL Board; NSF proposal declined. Triggers 128T planning; Final NCRIS payment released to Curtin (~$2.2m). NCRIS funds remaining at Curtin ~$1.6m; Curtin will enter contract with AAL for the release of EIF funds in ~September, $3.07m.

Basic plan Deploy a 512T capable site infrastructure, as originally planned (trenching, power and data reticulation, rx pads etc) –~$A m: –Aurecon is managing contractor; –Request for Tender (RFT) open now - close in June; –Targeted tender process - three contractors already on site, plus fourth in Geraldton; –Site License Agreement (SLA) between Curtin and CSIRO to be executed before end June. Deploy a 128T instrument on the 512T infrastructure; Leave potential for future expansion open when further funds are available.

High level overview of sub-systems Management: –Ron Remillard (PM); –Tom Booler (DPM) - seconded from Aurecon; –Bob Goeke (PE) - under contract with Kavli. Infrastructure - procure Australia (Aurecon/contractors); Tiles and beamformers - procure US (Burns); Receivers - procure India/Australia (RRI/PSI); Correlator - develop/procure TBD; RTC/RTS - procure Australia/New Zealand; M&C - develop TBD; Primary archive - develop/procure Australia (ICRAR/Pawsey).

128T science case Compiled by Stuart Wyithe (Science Council Chair); Submitted to AAL RTAC and approved (found to be compelling); Supports 128T construction plan submitted to AAL; Identifies increased difficulty for EoR studies (decreased calibration capability); Transients ok; SHI ok; GEG ok.

Today’s program Site infrastructure (including central building) (Goeke); 128T configuration considerations (Morales); Haystack perspective on correlator (Lonsdale/Cappallo); Curtin perspective on correlator (Ord); 128T RTS/RTC (Mitchell); 128T M&C (Morgan/Morales); Data transport and archive (Tingay/Remillard); Commissioning and early data analysis (Remillard); Operations (Remillard).

Questions to be resolved today 128T configuration: –Needs to be consistent with 512T infrastructure; –What are the primary science drivers for 128T?; –Are there cost drivers? 128T correlator: –What is the best technology solution? –How could this solution be best implemented? –Is there capacity for extended capabilities?

Pawsey Phase 1a (EPIC) is operational. The system is rated at 85 TF with 9600 x86 cores and a 500 TByte file system; Calls for proposal for July-December 2011 now out with closing date 17 June: Approximately 25% of the total Pawsey resources are allocated to the operational needs of radio astronomy = MWA + ASKAP + DIRP. This represents, over a 5 year period, around: 20% of the CPU time (average per year); 80% of the tape store (accumulated) (~50 PB for full Pawsey); 90% of the disk space (average per year) (~5 PB for full Pawsey). Projects from the radio astronomy community outside of those directly associated with MWA+ASKAP+DIRP development/operations can be submitted through the link above under partner share or merit review; Phase Phase 1b contract award is expect on 10 June with hopefully a system commissioned and operational by end Q Phase 1b will be ~1000 cores, 100 GPU and 1 PB of disk - optimized for data intensive research - Phase 1b resources should be available for the first proposal round in 2012; Pawsey building contract to be awarded in October 2011; Pawsey Petascale system contract award Feb 2012 and full Pawsey Centre operational September 2013; ICRAR Project 2.1 (DIRP) includes the design and construction of an archive system for MWA (based on Pawsey hardware and systems) that will provide access to MWA data held in the bulk (peta) store. DIRP will also include processing/database functionality and access to VO services for MWA data - on a resource limited basis given the "demonstrator" nature of DIRP. We will seek to enhance the MWA archive layer over time via proposals to NeCTAR and elsewhere.