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• single sets of measurements ad-hoc instruments,
• new projects demonstrator or test bench,
• test bench for new researches paradigm.
The initial requirements for the new spectrometer project were set to:
• low cost—budget for the final system limited to e10,000;
• high-frequency resolution—from 100 Hz down to 1 Hz;
• wide input bandwidth: from 100 to 500 MHz;
• real-time or quasi-real-time analysis;
• stable, reliable and long supported OS;
• secure upgradable software (OS and applications) to support new hardware;
• simple control Graphics User Interface (GUI).
During the work, these requirements were integrated with other desired features:
• a flexible software architecture to let the implementation of different SETI
processing chains;
• an open and scalable software architecture to let the use of the spectrometer in other
Medicina Radio Astronomical Station activities involving the FFT processing:
e.g., dedispersor in the frequency domain for high sensibility pulsar studies,
bistatic radar receiver for NEO and space debris monitoring, beamforming for
antennas array;
• possibility to replace the FFT with other spectral analysis techniques like
Wavelets, Karhunen-Loève Transform (KLT), Hilbert Huang Transform (HHT),
Agnostic Entropy analysis, etc.;
• measures and results encoded in different data formats, both scientific standards
and application-defined.
7.2.3 Spectrometer’s Hardware Design
The more definitive constraint was the overall unit cost. Spectrometer’s cost depends
on many factors: performance-related factors like input bandwidth, spectral resolution, timings (e.g., real-time or quasi-real-time analysis), and technical related
ones like R&D costs, components chosen, and produced units number. In our
requirements, the cost limit was related only to the components.
The e10,000 limit cut off the possibility of developing dedicated ASICs and also
the use of high-end FPGA boards. As an example, a single ROACH or ROACH2 board
[21, 22], or an FPGA PCI Express accelerator board costs, at that period, exceeded
the available budget. Moreover, some DAQ boards equipped with high-end FPGA
(like the one used in the NewSpec project) are out of budget.
The solution found was to use a straightforward design, similar to the one of
NewSpec, exploiting, as a base, a standard PC with a multi-core CPU. Here were
installed a DAQ board with a lower cost than the NewSpec project one, and if needed,
R. Lulli et al.
• single sets of measurements ad-hoc instruments,
• new projects demonstrator or test bench,
• test bench for new researches paradigm.
The initial requirements for the new spectrometer project were set to:
• low cost—budget for the final system limited to e10,000;
• high-frequency resolution—from 100 Hz down to 1 Hz;
• wide input bandwidth: from 100 to 500 MHz;
• real-time or quasi-real-time analysis;
• stable, reliable and long supported OS;
• secure upgradable software (OS and applications) to support new hardware;
• simple control Graphics User Interface (GUI).
During the work, these requirements were integrated with other desired features:
• a flexible software architecture to let the implementation of different SETI
processing chains;
• an open and scalable software architecture to let the use of the spectrometer in other
Medicina Radio Astronomical Station activities involving the FFT processing:
e.g., dedispersor in the frequency domain for high sensibility pulsar studies,
bistatic radar receiver for NEO and space debris monitoring, beamforming for
antennas array;
• possibility to replace the FFT with other spectral analysis techniques like
Wavelets, Karhunen-Loève Transform (KLT), Hilbert Huang Transform (HHT),
Agnostic Entropy analysis, etc.;
• measures and results encoded in different data formats, both scientific standards
and application-defined.
7.2.3 Spectrometer’s Hardware Design
The more definitive constraint was the overall unit cost. Spectrometer’s cost depends
on many factors: performance-related factors like input bandwidth, spectral resolution, timings (e.g., real-time or quasi-real-time analysis), and technical related
ones like R&D costs, components chosen, and produced units number. In our
requirements, the cost limit was related only to the components.
The e10,000 limit cut off the possibility of developing dedicated ASICs and also
the use of high-end FPGA boards. As an example, a single ROACH or ROACH2 board
[21, 22], or an FPGA PCI Express accelerator board costs, at that period, exceeded
the available budget. Moreover, some DAQ boards equipped with high-end FPGA
(like the one used in the NewSpec project) are out of budget.
The solution found was to use a straightforward design, similar to the one of
NewSpec, exploiting, as a base, a standard PC with a multi-core CPU. Here were
installed a DAQ board with a lower cost than the NewSpec project one, and if needed,