In this paper, we describe the installation of VLBI Correlation Subsystem (VCS) main product and its performance at the Korea-Japan Correlation Center (KJCC). The VCS main product was installed at KJCC in August 2009. For the overall performance evaluation of VCS, playbacks, Raw VLBI Data Buffer (RVDB) system, and Data Archive (DA) system were installed together. The VCS main product was connected between RVDB and DA, and the correlation results were put into the DA to confirm the normal operation of VCS 16 station mode configuration. The evaluation test was first performed with 4 station mode, same as the factory test of VCS main product. Based on the results of 4 station mode, the same evaluation test was conducted for 16 station mode of VCS. We found that the correlation results of VCS were almost similarly compared to those of the Mitaka FX Correlator. Through the test results, we confirmed that the problems such as spectrum errors, delay parameter processing module and field programmable gate array errors in antenna unit, which were generated at the factory test of VCS main product, were clearly solved. And we verified the performance and connectivity of VCS by obtaining the expected correlation results and we also confirmed that the performance of VCS was sufficient for real VLBI observation data in both 4 and 16 station modes.

We present the performance test results of VLBI Correlation Subsystem (VCS) trial product which was being developed for 1 year from August 2007. It is a core component of Korea-Japan Joint VLBI Correlator (KJJVC). The aim for developing VCS trial product is to improve the performance of VCS main product to reduce the efforts and cost, and to solve the design problems by performing the preliminary test of the manufactured trial product. The function of VCS trial product is that it is able to process the 2 stations-1 baseline, 8 Gbps/station speed, 1.2 Gbps output speed with FX-type. VCS trial product consists of Read Data Control Board (RDC), Fourier Transform Board (FTB), and Correlation and Accumulation Board (CAB). Almost main functions are integrated in the FTB and CAB board. In order to confirm the performance of VCS trial product functions, the spectral analysis, delay compensation and correlation processing experiments were carried out by using simulation and real observation data. We found that the overflow problem of re-quantization after FFT processing was occurred in the delay compensation experiment. We confirmed that this problem was caused by valid bit-expression of the re-quantized data. To solve this problem, the novel method will be applied to VCS main product. The effectiveness of VCS trial product has been verified through the preliminary experimental results, but the overflow problem was occurred.

A software simulator is developed for verifying the VLBI Correlation Subsystem (VCS) trial product hardware. This software simulator includes the delay tracking, fringe rotation, bit-jump, FFT analysis, re-quantization, and auto/cross-correlation functions so as to confirm the function of the VCS trial product hardware. To verify the effectiveness of the developed software simulator, we carried out experiments using the simulation data which is a mixed signal with white noise and tone signal generated by software. We confirmed that the performance of this software simulator is similar as that of the hardware system. In case of spectral analysis and re-quantization experiment, a serious problem of the VCS hardware, which is not enough for expressing the data stream of FFT results specified in VCS hardware specification, was found by this software simulator. Through the experiments, the performance of software simulator was verified to be efficient. In future, we will improve and modify the function of software simulator to be used as a software correlator of Korea-Japan Joint VLBI Correlator (KJJVC).