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Minutes of Informal '2-Way ALMA/Japan' Meeting on
Second Generation Correlator (2GC)
(S.K.Okumura and A. Baudry,
  sokumura@nro.nao.ac.jp;baudry@observ.u-bordeaux.fr )

Europe: Baudry, Bos
Japan: Chikada, Iguchi,Okumura,Momose,Okiura

<Introduction>
  An informal meeting on ALMA 2GC was held on 20 August 2002 during
the URSI meeting in Maastricht. The main purpose was to further
exchange technical information on the European and Japanese design
studies and to confirm the work to be done until March 2003 in view
of a unified design for the ALMA 2GC.

<Technical Progress>
  *European Correlator Design (DHXF)
  Phase 1 European pre-prototype studies (paper work and working
subsystems) have been completed and presented during the meeting on
large correlators held at ESO in March 2002. A working prototype is
now needed for a detailed design; the 2003 budget is in preparation
as requested by the ALMA Europe Office.

  *Japanese Corelator Design (FX)
  The Japanese team has distributed ALMA memo(No.431) summarizing the
development of their test FX correlator, first observational results
obtained with the 2GC test system and examples of enhanced sciences
with 2GC.

<Progress on Cost Estimate, Joint Activities>
  The ASAC expects an updated cost estimate for both the Japanese and
European designs not later than in the Spring of 2003.
  The Japanese team has almost favorably finished the explanation of
their FX design and has started explanations on the European basic
Hybrid XF structure to the industry. The industrial quotation
deadline has been set at the end of January 2003.
  At the Maastricht meeting, we discussed and finalized the common 2GC
specifications (see attached Table). We mentioned that the EVLA WIDAR
specifications do not satisfy the 2GC scientific requirements
(simultaneous achievement of wideband - 2GHz/baseband- and high
resolution - 5kHz or better). The architecture-dependent
specifications for the DHXF will be fixed at the next European
meeting in October.
  Preparation of documents for the industrial quotations concerning
the European DHXF design (functional description of the DHXF,
especially for the FIRs and correlation chips) will begin immediately
after the European correlator meeting of October has fixed technical
choices. We will also try to prepare documents pointing out the
technical differences between the WIDAR and 2GC DHXF systems.
  We have briefly discussed the possibility to share the industrial
quotation costs.

<Next Meeting>
  A face-to-face meeting will be necessary to discuss the results of
the industrial quotations. This is planned on February or March 2003
in Japan. We will announce the exact date and the agenda of the
planned meeting to the ASAC and to the scientists/engineers involved
in the ALMA 2GC.

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