 Our ability to leverage our expertise in DSP and FPGA in new and unprecedented projects is a key BittWare strength. One such project was a large binocular optical telescope.
The telescope would have different instruments in each mirror, each responsible for capturing a different image of the same object, such as optical and infrared. The end result is a complete picture of the object in question.
The challenges for this type of telescope are many. The instrument must account for temperature variations, high altitude winds, and other environmental disturbances while it is simultaneously pointing and focusing on the object in question. Once pointed, the instrument must then track the object as the Earth moves on its axis.
BittWare was tasked with providing the Mount Control System (MCS). This system provides controls for: altitude and azimuth, swing arms used to bring instruments and secondary/tertiary mirrors onto one of the focal points of the telescope, instrument rotators, and the enclosure rotation system. This system also needed to interface with the hydrostatic bearing system which controls the oil pumps, ensuring that the entire mechanism continues to move freely. The end solution was a 6U cPCI system based on multiple BittWare DSP cards. By using high speed interfaces between the link ports, and programming the DSPs so that they would operate deterministically in a round robin fashion by using the link ports and interrupts, the need for a real-time version of Linux or an RTOS was eliminated. |
