FPGA-based Matched Filter Group Optimisation for SKA Pulsar Search Engine

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Wang, Haomiao, Stappers, Ben, Thiagaraj, Prabu, Sinnen, Oliver
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Wang, Haomiao
Stappers, Ben
Thiagaraj, Prabu
Sinnen, Oliver
author_facet Wang, Haomiao
Stappers, Ben
Thiagaraj, Prabu
Sinnen, Oliver
contents Pulsar search is one of the main tasks for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), implemented in the central signal processor (CSP) sub-element. As most the characteristics of undiscovered pulsars are unknown by definition, exhaustive searches over a multi-dimensional parameter space are employed. One main compute-intensive task of the pulsar search modules in the CPS is the matched filter group, which convolves the input signals with a group of large FIR filters. High-performance designs on FPGAs have been proposed that can process multiple large filters efficiently. But given that in many applications, including the here targeted pulsar search, FIR filters have many different sizes, there is further potential for optimisation. This paper investigates the optimisation of matched filtering designs. While the results are tranferable to other domains, we are motivated by the needs of the SKA pulsar search engine. The influence of changing number of filters and the difference in sizes is analysed. The generic design in time-domain (TD) is optimised by employing the longest processing time (LPT) first rule to distribute filter templates across filter processing pipelines. For the Fourier-domain (FD), the relationship between the required off-chip memory space and speedup over the generic design is investigated. To put the results into relation with with GPU design, we compared with a well-optimised design for top-end GPUs (NVIDIA Tesal P100). While a mid-range Intel Arria 10 is up to 7.5x slower than the P100, the performance per watt is slightly better on the Arria 10.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_22124
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle FPGA-based Matched Filter Group Optimisation for SKA Pulsar Search Engine
Wang, Haomiao
Stappers, Ben
Thiagaraj, Prabu
Sinnen, Oliver
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Pulsar search is one of the main tasks for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), implemented in the central signal processor (CSP) sub-element. As most the characteristics of undiscovered pulsars are unknown by definition, exhaustive searches over a multi-dimensional parameter space are employed. One main compute-intensive task of the pulsar search modules in the CPS is the matched filter group, which convolves the input signals with a group of large FIR filters. High-performance designs on FPGAs have been proposed that can process multiple large filters efficiently. But given that in many applications, including the here targeted pulsar search, FIR filters have many different sizes, there is further potential for optimisation. This paper investigates the optimisation of matched filtering designs. While the results are tranferable to other domains, we are motivated by the needs of the SKA pulsar search engine. The influence of changing number of filters and the difference in sizes is analysed. The generic design in time-domain (TD) is optimised by employing the longest processing time (LPT) first rule to distribute filter templates across filter processing pipelines. For the Fourier-domain (FD), the relationship between the required off-chip memory space and speedup over the generic design is investigated. To put the results into relation with with GPU design, we compared with a well-optimised design for top-end GPUs (NVIDIA Tesal P100). While a mid-range Intel Arria 10 is up to 7.5x slower than the P100, the performance per watt is slightly better on the Arria 10.
title FPGA-based Matched Filter Group Optimisation for SKA Pulsar Search Engine
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.22124