The Square Kilometer Array will use Micron's Hybrid Memory Cube, a high-bandwidth DRAM replacement:
Once combined with other sites, [the Square Kilometer Array] would be capable of peering back further in time than any other Earth-based observatory. As with most advanced science projects, SKA presents unprecedented data processing challenges. With daily data volumes reaching 1 exabyte, "The data volume is becoming overwhelming," astronomer Simon Ratcliffe noted during a webcast this week.
In response, Micron Technology Inc. has come up with a processing platform for handling the growing data bottleneck called the Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC). The memory specialist combined its fast logic process technology with new DRAM designs to boost badly needed bandwidth in its high-density memory system.
[...] The radio telescope array uses a front-end processor to convert faint analog radio signals to digital. Those signals are then processed using FPGAs. Memory resources needed to make sense of all that data can be distributed using relatively simple algorithms, according to Francois Kapp, a systems engineer at SKA South Africa. The challenge, Kapp noted, is operating the array around the clock along with the "increasing depth and width of memory" requirements. "You can't just add more memory to increase the bandwidth, " he noted, especially as FPGAs move to faster interfaces.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @02:17PM
How many "station wagons of hard drives"/week will be needed?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @02:46PM (3 children)
Is there any consideration given to the fact that more data becomes increasingly unwieldy, and we might learn more from focusing on smaller and more manageable data sets? Has this kind of massive data hoarding led to significant insights before?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @02:47PM
The FB and the GOOG would like a word with you. Same for the NSA.
Don't you know that more is better?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 16 2017, @06:10PM
When it comes to astronomical data, there is never too much.
The primary issue is sorting the one you want that particular day. But capturing stuff you ingest, but don't need today, is critical to confirming or invalidating new theories or other discoveries down the road.
It's a game of needles and haystacks. Any opportunity you get to scan a haystack, someone could find a new type of needle.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 16 2017, @06:58PM
The data set is whittled down significantly. This article should help [theregister.co.uk].
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