BURSTT's Back-End System Enables Real-Time Fast Radio Burst Detection

This paper details the design, implementation, and performance validation of the back-end system for the Bustling Universe Radio Survey Telescope in Taiwan (BURSTT). BURSTT is a new-generation wide-angle radio telescope specifically designed to survey Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). The back-end system is designed to perform real-time beamforming and pulse search over a wide field of view, enabling the detection of approximately 50 FRBs per year with sub-arcsecond localization capability. The system employs a multi-stage processing architecture. Initial beamforming is executed on the Xilinx ZCU216 RF System-on-Chip (RFSoC) platform. Data is then transferred to Intel Xeon servers, where AVX-512 and AMX instruction sets are utilized for the second stage of beamforming and channelization. A highly optimized bonsai de-dispersion algorithm performs a real-time pulse search and triggering across 256 beams. Upon detection, the system issues commands to a distributed outrigger system to save voltage data for very-long baseline interferometry (VLBI) precise localization. System performance has been validated through beamforming tests using bright radio sources and real-time detection of known pulsars, confirming the high fidelity of the signal processing pipeline. The development of BURSTT's back-end system represents a significant advancement in real-time radio astronomy, enabling the efficient detection and localization of FRBs and contributing to our understanding of these enigmatic cosmic events.

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