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Engineering Working Group (EWG)

Software and computing Task Force

Terms of reference:

• Advise the ISPO and ISSC, via the EWG Chair, on software and computer engineering aspects of the SKA project, including:
- The scale of the SKA software and computing engineering tasks
- Workable divisions for software and computing tasks
- Identification of SKA-specific development tasks versus re-use of other products
- The role of High Performance Computing in the SKA
- Interaction between software and systems engineering – how far towards a software telescope can we go?

• Function as an impartial commentary and review body for demonstrator and pathfinder projects in the areas listed above.

• Act as a forum for the exchange of ideas between SKA engineering groups, and between the SKA project and external collaborators (including collaborators from industry and other scientific projects).

• Produce a whitepaper for the software and computing sub-system for consideration by the SKA community and by external engineering assessors charged with evaluating the SKA project. The draft whitepaper will be available by December 31 2005, with the final version completed by March 31 2006. The whitepaper will be prepared according to agreed EWG guidelines and will address issues such as:
- Common cost and performance descriptors across SKA concepts
- Dependence of the software and computing design on key SKA specifications
- Critical enabling technologies, and their likely development path
- Risk assessment for various technologies
- Large-scale production issues
- Reliability and maintainability issues
- Contribution of current and new-generation demonstrators
- Key technologies or techniques to be demonstrated in a large-scale SKA international pathfinder
- Possible links with industry in pre-competitive and procurement phases of the SKA project.

Members
- Michiel Brentjens, ASTRON, The Netherlands
- Wim Brouw, ASTRON, The Netherlands
- Tim Cornwell, CSIRO, Australia
- Gerry Harp, SETI Institute, USA
- Jasper Horrell (chair), SKA meerKAT project, South Africa
- Huib van Langevelde, JIVE, The Netherlands
- Simon Ratcliffe, SKA meerKAT project, South Africa
- Anita M. S. Richards, University of Manchester, UK
- Kjeld van der Schaaf, Dysi, The Netherlands
- Steven Tingay, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia