Meeting MeerKAT's signal processing challenges

MeerKAT is spearheading the development of a number of radio astronomy instrumentation techniques. This 64-dish array will feature direct digitisation of the sky signal with no analogue downmixing and a heterogeneous, realtime signal processor employing a commercial Ethernet network for all inter-device communications. By investing in portable intellectual property rather than hardware, the engineering team is able to deploy instrumentation on new hardware quickly and so leverage the latest technologies. This shrinks the system size, lowers costs and power consumption and increases system capabilities. This digital processor will make MeerKAT a highly flexible radio telescope, able to adapt to changing science requirements quickly and efficiently.