The MINT Backend PrincetonCMB

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The Mint Correlator

The philosophy of the Digitizer/Correlator follows that of the OVRO correlator designed by David Hawkins. A 500 MHz signal is sampled at 1 GHz and then deserialized into a programmable logic chip. The MINT design is unique in that it places 4 digitizer units and the correlator on one 15" x 15" board. This avoids any high speed interconnects and the accompanying buffers. Because of the ever-increasing densities of programmable logic, we were able to fit the entire correlator on one chip. Programmable logic affords us incredible flexibility, allowing us to lay out the board even before the correlator logic is finalized. We also place "spare" logic on a controller chip, in case there is any advanced signal processing that is required for operation. In fact, there are other places where we implement redundancy. The most critical signals are the reset signals which must synchronize the entire circuit. We have two methods to reset, one which resets the digitizers and one which "swallows" clock cycles for each digitizer unit.