World’s most advanced radio telescopes
A global scientific challenge
The SKA project is an international effort to build the world’s most advanced radio telescopes, It is an exciting and challenging scientific mission to change our understanding of the Universe, led by the SKA Observatory (SKAO).
In Australia, the SKA-Low telescope consist of more than 100,000 antennas that detect low-frequency radio waves, while South Africa’s SKA-Mid telescope features nearly 200 dishes focused on mid-frequency radio waves.
From the SKA-Low site in the Western Australian outback, typically 7.2 terabits of data will be transferred each second over hundreds of kilometres to the processing facility in Perth. Since the signals from space reach each antenna at a slightly different time, they must first be precisely aligned, in real time.
This is achieved thanks to extremely accurate atomic clocks that timestamp the time each signal is sampled. The received signals are processed by a complex Central Signal Processing (CSP) computing system to align, correlate, form beams and initially process the data before transferring it to a high-performance supercomputer, the Science Data Processor.
Since 2022, TOPIC has contributed to the SKA-Low telescope by delivering an integrated and tested CSP.
Intergrated & Tested CSP
For the SKAO project, TOPIC delivers an integrated and tested Central Signal Processor (CSP) for the LOW Telescope. A multidisciplinary team of test, integration, and network engineers is responsible for the integration and validation of various products that form core building blocks of the CSP, including: Correlator and Beamformer, Monitoring and Control, Pulsar Search and Pulsar Timing. At our office, the TOPIC team operates a dedicated infrastructure to support testing activities. This infrastructure also hosts servers used by the Pulsar Search team.
Hardware & Industrial partner
In addition to the system integration, TOPIC manages the procurement and delivery of hardware for the Correlator and Beamformer.
As an industrial partner, we are also responsible for sourcing and delivering all Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) equipment for both the data center and the on-site installation in Australia. Last year, the first batch of hardware was delivered, with the TOPIC team traveling to Australia to support the installation process.
