XRT

XRT is an acronym that can refer to several distinct concepts across different fields. This article summarizes three notable uses in astronomy, computing, and finance.

In astronomy, XRT commonly denotes an X-ray telescope, most notably the Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT) aboard NASA’s Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission. Launched in 2004, the XRT is designed to observe X-ray emissions from high-energy sources and to monitor the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts. It uses grazing-incidence optics to focus X-rays and operates in the soft X-ray range, roughly 0.3 to 10 keV, delivering imaging and spectroscopy with rapid repointing capabilities to follow transient events.

In computing, XRT stands for Xilinx Runtime, a software framework and runtime used to develop and run applications on Xilinx field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and adaptive compute acceleration platforms. XRT provides drivers and runtime support for executing kernels, managing memory, and interfacing with development tools such as OpenCL and the Vitis environment. It is a core component of FPGA acceleration workflows and helps translate software instructions into hardware-accelerated operations.

In finance, XRT is the ticker symbol for the SPDR S&P Retail ETF, an exchange-traded fund managed by State Street Global Advisors. The fund seeks to track the S&P Retail Select Industry Index, providing exposure to a broad cross-section of U.S. retail companies. It trades on major exchanges and is used by investors to gain targeted exposure to the retail sector or to implement related investment strategies.