CASPER

CASPER (for Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research) is an initiative to design and produce instruments for radio astronomy, such as receivers, spectrometers, and correlators. Since astronomy pushes observation-data-collection to the limit, its equipment can be very expensive to design, test, and manufacture, and collaboration on some common designs can be very helpful in reducing costs and effort, as well as speeding the development process. Among CASPER's designs are electronic units that can be adapted for various uses, often constituting subsystems of radio telescope instruments. Typical are hardware units that can be programmed or customized to tailor them to a specific use. They are incorporated into many instruments used in many observatories. For example, CASPER's ROACH2 board is a key component of the receivers used by the Event Horizon Telescope.