The Case for SoC in Future Radio Astronomy

Summary form only. Radio-astronomical interferometers are superb instruments key to understanding our Universe and the physical laws that govern it. At the core of such machines, a Central Signal Processor (CSP) combines the information received from multiple antennas in real time by means of cross-correlation and beamforming. The CSP reduces the input data rate by several orders of magnitude, so that astronomical data can be stored for offline processing. This paper makes a case for the use of SoC in future radio astronomy as a more environmentally sustainable alternative, in comparison with modern CSP designs based on FPGA technology, as well as a more economical one in the long term.