The SETI Institute is integrating Nvidia’s new IGX Thor platform into the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) to accelerate its search for extraterrestrial signals. Announced on Tuesday, the collaboration aims to power real-time AI signal detection directly at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Northern California.
The ATA, comprising 42 antennas, scans the cosmos for radio signals that could indicate distant cosmic phenomena or potential signs of intelligent life. By incorporating the enterprise-ready IGX Thor platform, the Institute can process and analyse incoming data on-site, drastically cutting down the time needed to identify noteworthy signals.
“NVIDIA IGX Thor enables us to run AI inference and GPU-accelerated signal processing workloads closer to the edge,” said Luigi Cruz, Staff Engineer at the SETI Institute. He noted the platform’s compact size and power efficiency make it ideal for the Institute’s next-generation pipeline based on Nvidia Holoscan.
Faster more precise analysis
This initiative builds on the SETI Institute’s previous work with the Nvidia IGX Orin platform, which enabled the first real-time AI search for fast radio bursts (FRBs) – brief, millisecond-long flashes of radio energy. The upgrade to IGX Thor is expected to significantly enhance these capabilities, enabling faster and more precise analysis across a larger portion of the sky.
“The new NVIDIA platform gives us the reliability and performance to run complex AI models right at the telescope,” commented Dr. Andrew Siemion, Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the Institute. “It’s an incredible step forward for our mission.”
The adoption by the SETI Institute highlights the versatility of the IGX Thor platform, which is also being utilised in fields like industrial safety and medical technology.
