Highlights of the SKA1-Mid telescope architecture

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Observatory will construct two radio telescopes: SKA-Low in Australia and SKAMid in South Africa. When completed the SKA will be the largest radio telescope on earth, with unprecedented sensitivity and scientific capability. The first phase of SKA-Mid (called SKA1-Mid) includes an array of 197 dishantennas incorporating the recently completed MeerKAT antennas, to cover the frequency range of 350 MHz to 15.4 GHz. A Central Signal Processor, located close to the array, correlates and beamforms the 18Tb/s digitised data stream before it is transported to a dedicated super-computer in Cape Town for further processing. The combination of largescale deployment, significant real-time processing and geographic distribution poses significant architectural challenges. This paper presents the architectural highlights of the SKA1-Mid Telescope baseline design which has recently completed its Critical Design Review (CDR) on the path to starting construction in early 2021.