DiFX New Features

Disk based file specification Improved specification of files to correlate Wild cards with time of scan name filtering? External reference – Ie remove from.input file

Threads/machine files Generate threads and machine files Could use generalized cluster setup file DataStream cave Threads 7 Core cave Threads 5 Core cave09 cave10..13

FITS-IDI Pulsar binning Pulsar binning support in FITS-IDI needed?

Monitoring and Diagnosis What is needed….?

Tk-errmon? GUI for multicast message/error distrobution Tab per machine Filter on type etc

User Interface Common GUI?

Geodesy Output Route into HOPS

Space VLBI Presently not feasible in difx (??) – Acceleration needed as well as rates Radioastron scheduled to launch in spring ’10 VSOP-2 to launch soon

DiFX Installation What more is needed? Distribution packages ? – E.g. Debian, Ubuntu

IF distribution Allow parallelization via subband as well as timeslicing – Specifically for widebandwidth, with small number of telescopes – E.g 8 Gbps, single baseline “Eliminate” DataStream – Allow eVLBI recorder to send data to core nodes

eVLBI disconnection Allow telescopes to disconnect (& reconnect) in eVLBI mode – Need some method to determine time of other DataStreams and create fake (but invalid) data stream.

Unified DataStream Helper eVLBI requires starting of remote Mark5/LBADR – startcorr.pl will start LBADR recorder – needs extra information which is not in.input file Mark5? Remote playback could be done the same way Method to (optionally) invoke DataStream “helper” application

Realtime DiFX Better support observing without predetermined schedule (e.g. connected element interferometry)

Remove IPP dependencies Isolate all IPP code to a well contained set of routines – Develop non-IPP versions – Version for non-Intel maths libraries

libDiFX Break ALL key components into individual modules – E.g. no mpi dependencies Allow cutdown correlator to be assembled easily (e.g. nonDiFX) Replace specific parts optimised for a particular setup (e.g. lots of telescopes, remove fringe rotation)

DiFX++ When should we abandon DiFX and start a newer better faster…..