Radio astronomy instrumentation has always pushed the limits of current technology with a constant drive for greater processing bandwidths, sensitivity, and surveying speeds. In this landscape, advanced receiver technology, or phased array feeds (PAFs), is heralding a new era in radio astronomy and will deliver instruments that are orders of magnitude faster in terms of survey speed than conventional instruments. The use of PAF receiver systems, however, requires a large amount of digital signal processing to reduce the amount of output data that they produce.
This presentation outlines the digital signal processing chain for the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP), a new PAF-based radio telescope in the advanced stages of construction in remote Western Australia. The challenges of meeting computational requirements, handling massive data throughput, and providing functional verification of such a complex system are covered. The presentation highlights how MATLAB and Simulink are being used to design, implement, and verify many computational modules in the digital signal processing flow for the instrument.
