ALMA SoftwareALMA Software

B.E. Glendenning (NRAO)

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ALMA

• “High Frequency VLA” in Chile• Presently a European/North American Project

– Japan is almost certainly joining

– $1B final cost

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Chajnantor Site, Chile

5000m

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VLA Comparison

VLA ALMA

N 27 64D 25 m 12 m 7 mm 0.35 mm

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ALMA Computing

• Computing:– Software development– Necessary operational computer equipment– System/network planning and administration (operations phases)

• Subsystems: proposal preparation, monitoring, dynamic scheduling, equipment control and calibration, correlator control and processing, archiving, automated pipeline processing, offline processing– Not: embedded software (hardware groups), algorithm development

(Science)

• Activities: management, requirements, analysis, common software, software engineering, integration and test

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ALMA Computing Budget

230 FTE-y of software development effort on the construction budget110 FTE-y of software maintenance and system and network administration

effort on the interim operations budget starting in 2007.5.~3 FTE/y in-kind contributions to augment baseline systems in various areas

(e.g., Archive, ACS)~10 FTE/y in NRAO and ESO institutional development of AIPS++, NGAST

~50 FTE/y

$7.1M of equipment required to operate ALMA on the construction budget.$3.8M of communications costs and equipment upgrades on the interim

operations budget starting in 2007.5.

The above does not include impacts of the operations plan or the Japanese enhancements.

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Software Scope

• From the cradle… – Proposal Preparation– Proposal Review– Program Preparation– Dynamic Scheduling of Programs– Observation– Calibration & Imaging– Data Delivery & Archiving

• Afterlife: – Archival Research & VO Compliance

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And it has to look easy…

• From the Scientific Software Requirements:– “The ALMA software shall offer an easy to use interface to any user

and should not assume detailed knowledge of millimeter astronomy and of the ALMA hardware.

– “The general user shall be offered fully supported, standard observing modes to achieve the project goals, expressed in terms of science parameters rather than technical quantities...”

• The expert must still be able to exercise full control• But what is simple for the user will therefore be complex for

the software developer.– Architecture should relieve developer of unnecessary complexity– Separation of functional from technical concerns

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Configuration Database: DO Schemas

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