Collaborative Research: Elements: Bifrost - A CPU/GPU Pipeline Framework for High Throughput Data Acquisition and Analysis

Modern computers, including cell phones and tablets, have sophisticated Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) that render the beautiful graphic displays in games. We are developing software that takes advantage of these same GPUs for capturing and processing data from astronomical telescopes. This allows us to benefit from all the years of effort spent developing these powerful computational tools.

This software, known as Bifrost, is currently in use at the Long Wavelength Array (LWA), a radio telescope for exploration of a broad scientific portfolio ranging from the study of Cosmic Dawn when the first stars and galaxies lit up the Universe, to understanding the properties of the Earth's ionosphere. We are actively developing Bifrost to make it both more powerful and easier to use for other telescopes.

Eventually we aim for Bifrost to be available as a more general purpose framework that can be applied to research projects beyond astronomy.

About 5-years ago we adopted a commodity equipment design for the second LWA station (LWA-SV) which makes use of computing servers with GPUs to handle the data capture, beamforming, and correlation at the station level. Previously these functions were taken on by dedicated hardware referred to as the Digital Processor. However, this custom-hardware design was expensive to build and maintain, lacks flexibility, and cannot be easily replicated for future LWA stations.

In contrast the commodity approach is easier to maintain, much more flexible and expandable, and can be readily adapted to new LWA stations. We are engaged in a concentrated effort to improve the underpinnings of Bifrost. This involves increasing the data rates that Bifrost is capable of handling, improving the application programming interface, and providing tools to make it easier for users to develop and test new pipelines.

Through this award we are working with collaborators to incorporate Bifrost in telescopes and instruments currently under development. The availability of Bifrost will increase the scientific return of not only radio astronomy but also other areas where high throughput data processing is needed.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.