The MeerKAT Digital Backend. A computer’s command output is displayed over a number of server racks. One line says: “Centroiding the timestamp of the ACM matrices.” Later lines feature the words: “Time Dimension, Frequency Dimension, Polarisation Dimension” and “Baseline Dimension.”

The Backend Development Group

Designing and developing advanced backend hardware and software systems that power radio telescopes worldwide.

The Backend Development Group designs and develops advanced backend processing systems — both hardware and software — that power radio telescopes around the world. Our work combines physics and computer science to create high-performance instrumentation for a wide range of radio astronomical needs, including beamformers, correlators, spectropolarimeters, pulsar search and timing systems, and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) recorders.

Our backends process enormous volumes of data in real time, extracting scientifically valuable signals from cosmic radio waves. To achieve this, we harness cutting-edge technologies such as GPUs, FPGAs, and high-speed networking, developing robust and scalable systems that support some of the most demanding observational challenges in radio astronomy.

Our work supports some of the world's most powerful telescopes, ensuring they can make the most precise and comprehensive measurements possible. By continuously advancing backend instrumentation, we contribute to new discoveries in astrophysics and push the boundaries of what is possible in radio astronomy.