Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes III ADAPTIVE OPTICS REAL-TIME CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR THE E-ELT

The next generation of large telescopes will depend critically on Adaptive Optics. The instrumentation now proposed for the E-ELT makes substantial demands on computing power for real-time control. These demands will be met by a combination of novel algorithms and the use of new developments in the world of high power computing. This poster summarises the developments made in meeting this challenge at the CfAI in Durham and our research and development plan over the next few years. We will demonstrate what can be done on an ELT scale with existing hardware (FPGA, GPU, CPU) and to what aspects of the real-time control system these technologies are best applied. In addition, we report on initial attempts at Durham to abstract the hardware from the software, using the high-level language OpenCL. This will be critical to making software for the E-ELT ‘future proof’ allowing for the introduction of new computing technology that will emerge over the long development period of E-ELT instrumentation.