The parkes Southern pulsar Survey -- I. Observing and data analysis systems and initial results

'Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, PO Box 76, Epping NSW 2121, Australia Wuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories, University of Manchester, lodrell Bank, Macclesfield, Cheshire SKII 9DL 3Istituto di Radioastronomia del CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy 4Istituto di Fisica dell'Universita, Via Archirafi 36, 90123 Palermo, Italy 'Research Centre for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia 6Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, Australian National University, Private Bag, Weston ACT 2611, Australia