Daily Image
05-08-2025
Lifting LIFT to the next level
| Submitter: | Arno Schoenmakers |
| Description: | For the LIFT project we are enabling the transient buffer functionality in LOFAR2. All digital processing Uniboards in LOFAR have been equipped with memory modules as a temporary buffer for antenna data. Adaptations to the firmware running on the Uniboards FPGAs and the OPC-UA interface to the firmware, implemented over the last months by Eric Kooistra and Pieter Donker, have enabled the transient buffers. This new mode gives a LOFAR2.0 station the ability to store up to 4 seconds of antenna data in memory. From this a time interval of data from one or more antennas can be selected and sent to the central processing facilities at the CIT in Groningen. The LIFT project run by Brian Hare will use that capability for lightning studies, but there are many other applications possible, as well. The firmware development is now gradually coming to an end: the buffering functionality is working, as is the transport of buffered data between the FPGAs and the outside. So far all work has been done on a 'naked' test Uniboard in the digital lab at ASTRON. The next step is to prepare further integration in the LOFAR2.0 environment. For that, we have expanded our test setup with 16 RCU2Ls, which is the maximum number that can be connected to a single Uniboard with 4 FPGAs. This test setup has now been prepared in the 'noisy room' shouldering the digital lab and is ready for use, thanks to the cooperation of TO, who provided the sixteen RCU2Ls, and Gijs Schoonderbeek who installed these in the test subrack. The goal of the tests to come is to prove that the new firmware still fully supports the existing firmware functionality while adding the transient buffer capability. Using the setup in the lab at ASTRON allows the firmware engineers to manually check and reset the system when there are issues boiling up. Once we have passed these tests, everything is ready for a real field test on a LOFAR2.0 station, which will be very exciting for the team. So stay tuned to see us LIFT this project to the next level..! |
| Copyright: | ASTRON |
| Tweet |  |