ALMA Software B.E. Glendenning (NRAO)

2 ALMA “High Frequency VLA” in Chile Presently a European/North American Project –Japan is almost certainly joining –$1B final cost

3 Chajnantor Site, Chile 5000m

4 VLA Comparison VLAALMA N2764 D25 m12 m 7 mm0.35 mm

5 ALMA Computing Computing: –Software development –Necessary operational computer equipment –System/network planning and administration (operations phases) Subsystems: proposal preparation, monitoring, dynamic scheduling, equipment control and calibration, correlator control and processing, archiving, automated pipeline processing, offline processing –Not: embedded software (hardware groups), algorithm development (Science) Activities: management, requirements, analysis, common software, software engineering, integration and test

6 ALMA Computing Budget 230 FTE-y of software development effort on the construction budget 110 FTE-y of software maintenance and system and network administration effort on the interim operations budget starting in ~3 FTE/y in-kind contributions to augment baseline systems in various areas (e.g., Archive, ACS) ~10 FTE/y in NRAO and ESO institutional development of AIPS++, NGAST  ~50 FTE/y $7.1M of equipment required to operate ALMA on the construction budget. $3.8M of communications costs and equipment upgrades on the interim operations budget starting in The above does not include impacts of the operations plan or the Japanese enhancements.

7 Software Scope From the cradle… –Proposal Preparation –Proposal Review –Program Preparation –Dynamic Scheduling of Programs –Observation –Calibration & Imaging –Data Delivery & Archiving Afterlife: –Archival Research & VO Compliance

8 And it has to look easy… From the Scientific Software Requirements: –“The ALMA software shall offer an easy to use interface to any user and should not assume detailed knowledge of millimeter astronomy and of the ALMA hardware. –“The general user shall be offered fully supported, standard observing modes to achieve the project goals, expressed in terms of science parameters rather than technical quantities...” The expert must still be able to exercise full control But what is simple for the user will therefore be complex for the software developer. –Architecture should relieve developer of unnecessary complexity –Separation of functional from technical concerns

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12 Configuration Database: DO Schemas

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