Investigation of POWER8 processors for astronomical adaptive optics real-time control

Basden, Alastair

Abstract

The forthcoming Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) all require adaptive optics systems for their successful operation. The real-time control for these systems becomes computationally challenging, in part limited by the memory bandwidths required for wavefront reconstruction. We investigate new POWER8 processor technologies applied to the problem of real-time control for adaptive optics. These processors have a large memory bandwidth, and we show that they are suitable for operation of first-light ELT instrumentation, and propose some potential real-time control system designs. A central processing unit (CPU)-based real-time control system significantly reduces complexity, improves maintainability, and leads to increased longevity for the real-time control system.

Citation

Basden, A. (2015). Investigation of POWER8 processors for astronomical adaptive optics real-time control. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 452(2), 1694-1701. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1396

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 22, 2015
• Publication Date: Sep 11, 2015
• Deposit Date: Feb 9, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 9, 2016
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Print ISSN: 0035-8711
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-2966
• Publisher: Royal Astronomical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 452
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 1694-1701
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1396
• Keywords: Instrumentation: adaptive optics, Instrumentation: miscellaneous, Methods: numerical.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1420432
• Related Public URLs: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015MNRAS.452.1694B