6.13 Recorders

The recorders form the VLBA's data transmission system, writing sampled, formatted data on magnetic media which are then shipped to the correlator (Section 7) at the DSOC central facility. The VLBA currently records on Mark 5A recording systems. The Mark 5 unit accommodates two removable modules, each comprising eight commercial disk drives; module capacities as large as 8 TB are currently in use. Details on Mark 5 systems may be found at http://www.haystack.mit.edu/tech/vlbi/mark5/index.html . The VLBA's current module complement has a total capacity of 863 Terabytes (TB), sufficient to support sustainable observations at a standard data rate of 512 Mbps for continuum observations. This subsection will be modified substantially when the new digital backends and Mark 5C recorders are installed on the VLBA later in 2010. See the beginning of Section 6 for further information.