Project Title:

Continuous-Wave Signal Detector for SETI

07.09-2140
Continuous-Wave Signal Detector for SETI
Silicon Engines, Inc.
955 Commercial Street
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Jerome F. Duluk  (415-967-5544)
ARC -- NAS2-12808

Abstract:

	 The SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence) approach for finding extra-terrestrial
artificial signals includes the detection of weak, narrow-band, continuous-wave (CW)
signals among a large number of noisy narrow-band channels. The CW signals may drift
slowly in frequency, and the many choices for frequency and drift make computation
an arduous task and CW detection difficult. A special computer architecture is proposed
as a solution to the CW signal detection problem in the SETI.
	A key part of the innovation is a minimal-precision, matched-filter processor that
is ideally suited for custom, very large scale integration. This computer incorporates
a new concept in the design of a minimal-precision-filter (MPF) integrated circuit
devised in Phase I. A single MPF chip will contain approximately 200 filters and
perform 200 complex multiply-accumulate operations every 50 ns. A system using 2000
of these chips in parallel will perform 8 trillion complex multiply-accumulate operations
per second. Using this device as the CW detector computation engine alleviates the
computation bottleneck and replaces all competing alternatives in performance, size,
and cost.

Potential Commercial Application:

Potential Commercial Application: This technology may apply to radars capable of
providing simultaneous, ultra-high resolution in both velocity and range; digital
coding and encryption; and recovery and detection of spread spectrum transmissions.