CABB update

Philip Edwards

Head of Science Operations

14 October 2010

Outline

• Introduction• What’s currently available?• What’s coming soon?• What’s coming later?• Current issues• Documentation• Miriad• Final considerations

CSIRO. ATUC report May 2010: ATNF Science Operations

The story so far

• CABB shutdown March/April 2009, old correlator removed

• First scheduled observing April 22, 2009• The new CABB scheduler interfaces directly with calibrator database and velocity calculator

• Staged releases of ATCA schedules as new modes developed• 2009APR and 2009JUL• 2010APR v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7

CSIRO. ATUC report May 2010: ATNF Science Operations

What’s currently available?

• “Standard” CABB mode 1M-0.5k (Apr 2009)• 2IFs with 2048 channels across 2.048 GHz• Currently 128 ch (one board) missing in each IF• Up to four zoom bands (2048ch across 1MHz) per IF

• Currently one band missing all baselines to CA04 in one polarisation

• Configuring zoom bands currently requires Warwick• First implementation of 64M-32k (Sep 2010)

• A single 64 MHz band in each IF, with 2048ch• A combination of these two (Oct 2010)

Example of a missing CABB block

CABB zoom bands (currently)

Portion of a 1 MHz zoom band

Portion of the 64 MHz zoom band

Coming soon

• Pulsar binning

• by mid November

• High time resolution mode• Time resolution > 10msec, with reduced number of spectral

channels• by mid January

• All baselines to CA04 in zoom bands &

16 zoom bands per IF• by end of year

Further afield

• A single channel 16M-8k mode

• A single channel 4M-2k mode• These modes will allow parallel development of correlator software

• Full 32 x 64MHz channels in each IF• Expected in time for 2011APR

Current issues

• Missing baseline/pol in 1 of 4 zoom bands• Not possible to know in advance which zoom band

• Missing 128 channels in each IF• Calibration and data reduction of 20/13cm data more involved until L/S upgrade complete

• Configuring zoom modes not yet straightforward

• Configurations changed manually, not via the schedule file

• Calibrating delays more difficult in current implementation of 64MHz mode

• Careful use of delavg, tvchan and/or cycle time required

Documentation

• “Ink is better than the best memory.” -- Chinese proverb

• “If a program is useful it will have to be changed. If a program is useless it will have to be documented.”

• “Voluminous documentation is part of the problem, not part of the solution.” -- Tom DeMarco

• “I guess it’s better to have too much information than too little. It makes the manufacturer feel good, keeps writers employed, and makes attorneys work a little harder. Besides, it gives me something to read as I’m eating those chewy white peanuts that came with my new computer.” -- Dave Glardon

CSIRO. ATUC report May 2010: ATNF Science Operations

CABB documentation

• CABB webpage• www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/observing/CABB.html

• CABB Scheduler• www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/observing/sched/cabb

• ATCA User Guide (updated Oct 2010)• www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/observing/users_guide/html/atug.html

• ATCA forum • atcaforum.freeforums.org

• ATCA wiki• atug.wikidot.com

• Miriad manual (updated Sep 2010)• www.atnf.csiro.au/computing/software/miriad

Miriad

• Binary distribution kits provided for linux, SunOS, Intel Macs

• Other platforms not supported directly but autoconf-based build system available

• Miriad distribution tar files are regenerated weekly• Those with ssh access to an ATNF computer can

use rsync to update miriad• The mirsync script will refresh and files or subdirectories in

$MIR that are present on the master (and delete anything within $MIR that is not on the master).

• ftp://ftp.atnf.csiro.au/pub/software/miriad/INSTALL.html

CSIRO. ATUC report May 2010: ATNF Science Operations

Final considerations

• Documentation is continuing to be worked on as our understanding of this wonderful new capability improves

• Discussions have been started on the future of data reduction software: miriad, casa, ASKAPsoft

• Will provide a stock of 64Gb thumb drives for purchase• ATCA forum to be moved in-house (and wiki ceased?)• Warwick Wilson will retire in several months time

CSIRO. ATUC report May 2010: ATNF Science Operations

Celebrating the opening of the ATCA

Celebrating 20 years…

Thank you

CSIRO. ATUC report May 2010: ATNF Science Operations

CSIRO/ATNFPhilip EdwardsCSIRO ATNF Head of Science Operations

Email: Philip.Edwards@csiro.auWeb: www.atnf.csiro.au

Contact UsPhone: 1300 363 400 or +61 3 9545 2176

Email: Enquiries@csiro.au Web: www.csiro.au

Thank you