CICADA Software Status
Background and Introduction
The Green Bank Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument (GUPPI) is the next-generation pulsar processor for the GBT and is built on the CASPER platform (Center for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research at U.C. Berkeley). GUPPI development hit first-light in spring of 2008 and from the beginning has required at least an expert-user interface to provide simple controls and access to its parameters.
The CASPER platform provides for hardware registers and memory locations to be accessible by name on its FPGA-based hardware boards. These boards have 100 Mbit Ethernet interfaces with either a simple shell (called TinySH) or a full Linux shell. Interfacing to these boards requires client-side software (i.e. for that which communicates with these boards) which currently is not available off-the-shelf (although there exists code which prototypes functionality for some pieces).
This FPGA-driven hardware platform and its flexible low-level software counterpart provide a toolflow for highly promising rapid development of new radio astronomy backends.
Goal:
Software effort for NRAO's Configurable Instrument Collaboration for Agile Data Acquisition (CICADA) program and GUPPI project aim to deliver control software for GUPPI as well as a generic suite for parameter control for all standard CASPER implementations, which can be used throughout the NRAO and by its collaborators.
Recent News
- 25 Feb 2008 - The Green Bank software division welcomes Patrick Brandt. CICADA and GUPPI now officially have 1.25 FTE of software effort.
- 02 Apr 2008 - The GUPPI command-line interface is put to use in Green Bank.
- 17 Apr 2008 - The GUPPI team connects GUPPI to the GBT during an observation.
- 28 Jun 2008 - NRAO presents GUPPI Software at SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation, Advanced Software & Control for Astronomy.
- 30 Sep 2008 - GUPPI enters shared-risk mode for GBT observations.
Current Status
- Completed in Feb 2008 - Design CICADA and GUPPI software packages, from low-level hardware interfacing to expert-level user interfacing (with support for a GBT manager to be added later).
- Completed in Mar 2008 - Demonstrate a head-to-toe implementation of the CICADA and GUPPI software packages, providing a single functional command-line interface for controlling the latest gateware implementation to date.
- Completed in Sep 2008 - Implement a basic GBT manager for GUPPI and integrate with the Monitor & Control system for shared-risk, limited operation of GUPPI.
- Completed in Mar 2009 - Fully install the GUPPI controller software, so that users and scripts on host 'beef' can access a system-wide tool/library.
- Completed - Fully integrate GUPPI into the GBT Monitor & Control system.
Links
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RonDuPlain - 03 Mar 2008 - 16 Mar 2009