Pulsar Machine Status and Meeting Agenda

  • Meeting participants:
    • Randy McCullough, Glen Langston, Amy Shelton, Rich Lacasse, Paul Demorest, Ron DuPlain, Duncan Lorimer, Brandon Rumberg, Patrick Brandt

Project Status

  • Randy
    1. Updated everyone on status of orders for BEE2, iBOBs, iADCs, etc.
    2. Announced that Ron DuPlain has officially been allocated up to 25% to our CIDADA efforts. Many thanks to Nicole Radziwill for offering us Ron's much needed support!
    3. Mentioned that Karen O'Neil has agreed to review and then sign off on our project charter, planning documents, etc.
    4. Presented and discussed a proposed architecture template diagram to be used as a high-level design visualization tool.
  • Amy
    1. Explained the circumstances under which Ron DuPlain has been allocated up to 25% to our CICADA efforts. She also clarified that Karen O'neil had agreed only to review our project charter and planning documents, and that she most likely would confer with us prior to an actual signoff.
  • Glen
    1. Updated the group on his latest efforts to get an NRAO version of CASPER's Pocket Spectrometer working. Ron DuPlain has offered to look into these issues as well.
    2. Suggested (wisely) that, before we immerse ourselves in any sort of complex design involving the BEE2, we should concentrate on a few very simple test applications such as blinking LEDs, etc.
    3. Suggested that John Ford's lack of time to devote to CICADA support is becoming an issue; however, John has stated before that he should be able to respond on demand with one day's notice to handle any issues which arise.
  • Paul
    1. Suggested that Randy add a Data Collection Machine with disk(s) on the right hand side of the proposed architecture diagram with connection through one of the Control FPGA's 10Ge ports. Randy plans to take care of this as soon as he returns from vacation.
  • Rich
    1. Expressed concern with using the interleaved mode for digitizing the in-coming data at the iADCs. Basically, he's concerned that this will cause an artificial spur at the sample clock frequency (which was seen during actual bench tests). Paul and Randy mentioned that they recalled a possible means for adjusting the ADC "bias" which would help to alleviate this effect. More studies on this will be conducted in the following weeks.
    2. Suggested a design methodology under which we begin at the left (upstream) side of the proposed architecture diagram; stuffing as much capabilities as far upstream as possible.

Known problems

  • Pocket Spectrometer continues to be a problem. It just does not work for us. CASPER guys are looking at it.

Project Plans for discussion

  • Glen, Brandon, Patrick, and Ron will continue their efforts to resolve remaining issues with the Pocket Spectrometer
  • Randy will update his proposed architecture diagram to add Data Collection Machine, etc.

-- RandyMcCullough - 01 Oct 2007
Topic revision: r3 - 2008-02-05, PaulDemorest
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