1. Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy 1 Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 DSP & UniBoard development @ Astron Hajee Pepping

2. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 2 Making discoveries in radio astronomy happen! Mission Astron

3. © ASTRON

4. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 4 Why do we need DSP in radio astronomy applications?

5. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 5

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11. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 11 From single signal to multi signals

12. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 12 From single signal to multi-signals

13. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 13 Yes nice cables, but what about DSP?

14. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 14 Phased Array Principle

15. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 15 Board history How did we master the phased array principle?

16. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 16 Prototype 2002: THEA Beamformer in FPGAs

17. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 17 DSP engineers in earlier projects 2002: Debugging…

18. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 18 Overview of processing boards in earlier projects 2008: LOFAR Remote Station Processing board

19. Current platform in operation: UniBoard1 Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 19  8x Altera Stratix IV 40nm FPGA  Standard DDR3 SODIMM  Standard 10GbE interfaces  160 Gbps throughput  ~400W

20. 20 UniBoard in a system Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014

21. UniRack Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 21

22. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 22 Board future What is next?

23. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 23 Current platform in design: UniBoard 2

24. UniBoard Comparison Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 24 UniBoard1 (Stratix IV) UniBoard 2 (Arria10) UniBoard 2 (Stratix10) Throughput rate160 Gbps960 Gbps2400 Gbps Processing2 TMAC/s4.8 TMAC/s20 TMAC/s Nof PCB layers1418 MemoryDDR3DDR4 Technology40nm20nm14nm SerDes3.125 Gbps10 Gbps25 Gbps Operational201220152016

26. Firmware Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 26 What is the Astron approach towards efficient firmware development?

27. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 27 One Click  One Click  ASTRON and SKA-SA  Goals:  Descrease development time  Simplify the workflow  Be prepared for huge complex FPGA designs

28. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 28 One Click: more free time

29. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 29 Current flow vs Envisioned flow

30. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 30 One Click: Reuse  Coding standard  Modular design approach  Standard busses  Common infrastructure

31. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 31 One Click: Automation  Future: Automatic generation of MM bus and busmaster.  Automate procedures (e.g. simulate, compile)  Regression tests (self-checking testbenches)  Generic project files

32. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 32 One Click: Simulation using VHDL and Python.  Verification is as important as the design itself, they go hand in hand. 1.Test benches with stimuli and verification in VHDL 2.Test benches with stimuli and verification in Python

33. Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 33 Conclusion  FPGA and DSP design have a key role in radio astronomy  Astron has rich heritage in:  Multi FPGA boards  High speed board design  Manifesting a modular and automated firmware design flow

34. Onder de motorkap van LOFAR! Bits & Chips - Smart Systems, November 20th 2014 34 Vragen?