Real-time correlation and power spectrum calculation for neutron pulse series

The real-time algorithm of correlation calculation and frequency spectrum analysis is presented for neutron pulse series up to 1 GHz sampling rates based on PC. The fast-moving method is proposed based on the special “0” and “1” structure of the series and spectrum analysis process is optimized. Memory management and streaming SIMD(single-instruction multiple-data) extensions are adopted in the algorithm for optimizing. Simulation demonstrates that the presented correlation algorithm consumes 0.29 μs when data block length is 1 024 points and count rate is 3×106 s-1, while the correlation algorithm of Intel Math Kernel Library consumes 129.95 μs. Practical experiment shows that the algorithm meets the demand of real-time correlation calculation and frequency spectrum analysis.