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P. E. Dewdney, B. R. Carlson (National Research Council of Canada)
Companion papers by the EVLA team illustrate the power of the EVLA, which can be enabled only by the most powerful, flexible correlator
conceived to date. Moreover, since the correlator will be expected to process signals containing interference, it must be robust to radio frequency interference. We propose to build a correlator to process signals from up to 40 antennas in eight independently tunable, 2 GHz wide IF-bands (typically four left and four right polarizations). This will provide the basic continuum sensitivity needed to explore the high red-shift objects of the ``Evolving Universe'' or the weak polarized signals of the ``Magnetic Universe''. High spectral resolution confers the ability to observe very narrow spectral lines or to carry out esoteric planetary radar observations. Large numbers of channels permit searches for highly red-shifted spectral lines over large volumes of the universe at once or simultaneous observations of multiple spectral lines in the ``Obscured Universe''. We expect to be able to provide 16384 channels per baseline that can be flexibly distributed over all the IF-bands or concentrated in very narrow sub-bands. Objects in the ``Transient Universe'', from pulsars to solar bursts can be accomodated by 10 ms integration periods, asynchronous triggering of short observation ``bursts'', and up to 1024 pulsar ``phase bins'' per baseline. Strong signals from astronomical masers, the sun, and interference require spectral dynamic range of >105, which combined with high spectral resolution, will permit the expurgation of interference. These are the most important specifications needed to realize the potential of the EVLA. We expect to be able to meet them, using an innovative correlator architecture.