Software correlation, where a correlation algorithm written in a high-level language such as C++ is run on commodity computer hardware, has become increasingly attractive for small to medium sized and/or bandwidth constrained radio interferometers. In particular, many long baseline arrays (which typically have fewer than 20 elements and are restricted in observing bandwidth by costly recording hardware and media) have utilized software correlators for rapid, cost-effective correlator upgrades to allow compatibility with new, wider bandwidth recording systems and improve correlator flexibility. The DiFX correlator, made publicly available in 2007, has been a popular choice in such upgrades and is now used for production correlation by a number of observatories and research groups worldwide. Here we describe the evolution in the capabilities of the DiFX correlator over the past three years, including a number of new capabilities, substantial performance improvements, and a large amount of supporting infrastructure to ease use of the code. New capabilities include the ability to correlate a large number of phase centers in a single correlation pass, the extraction of phase calibration tones, correlation of disparate but overlapping sub-bands, the production of rapidly sampled filterbank and kurtosis data at minimal cost, and many more. The latest version of the code is at least 15% faster than the original, and in certain situations many times this value. Finally, we also present detailed test results validating the correctness of the new code.

WSClean (w-stacking clean) is a fast generic widefield imager. It uses the w-stacking algorithm and can make use of the w-snapshot algorithm. It supports full-sky imaging and proper beam correction for homogeneous dipole arrays such as the MWA. WSClean allows Hogbom and Cotton-Schwab cleaning, and can clean polarizations joinedly. All operations are performed on the CPU; it is not specialized for GPUs.

HOPS (Haystack Observatory Postprocessing System) analyzes the data generated by DiFX VLBI correlators. It is written in C for Linux computers, and emphasizes quality-control aspects of data processing. It sits between the correlator and an image-processing and/or geodetic-processing package, and performs basic fringe-fitting, data editing, problem diagnosis, and correlator support functions.