The Correlator

The ALMA Correlator is installed in the AOS Technical Building. It is the last component on the receiving end of data transmission. It is a very large data processing system, composed of four quadrants, each of which can process data from up to 504 antenna pairs. The complete Correlator will have 2,912 printed circuits, 5,200 interface wires and over 20 million welding points. The Correlator is made up of Tunable Filter Bank (TFB) cards. The distribution requires four TFB cards for data that arrives from a single antenna. The TFB cards have been developed and optimized by Université de Bordeaux over the past few years.

© Carlos Padilla - AUI/NRAOO