Product category:
Design and Development Hardware
News Release from: Lyrtech | Subject: SignalMaster Quad
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 14 December 2006
Advanced quad development platform
unveiled
Lyrtech has launched the Virtex-4 version of its best-selling SignalMaster Quad advanced development platform.
Lyrtech has launched the Virtex-4 version of its best-selling SignalMaster Quad advanced development platform At the same time, Lyrtech has also launched the DRC Virtex-4, a high-performance, pre-processing/post-processing, high-speed I/O link module for the SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 20 Mar 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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The SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4 cPCI development board, a significant improvement over the existing SignalMaster Quad Virtex-II board, is specifically designed to help develop and test DSP algorithms in real-time environments through its unique combination of FPGA and DSP devices.
The 1GHz fixed-point DSPs of the board are very efficiently interconnected to exploit the high-baseband, multi-channel processing power of the TMS320C6416 DSP from Texas Instruments Incorporated.
The SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4 is also designed around two clusters of one Virtex-4 LX FPGA and two C6416 DSPs, each cluster capable of delivering up to an impressive 16,000-MIPS/MMACS DSP processing power and 48-GMACS FPGA-based DSP processing power.
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This makes the SignalMaster Quad ideally suited to, for example, Wi-Fi and WiMAX applications, base station prototyping, and waveform development (e.g software-defined radio with VHS-ADC/DAC boards).
The LX FPGA of the board, specifically, with its large amount of available logic cells, is also ideal for ASIC prototyping.
Further improving the board's lead over its competitors, the FPGA-DSP clusters of the SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4 are interconnected through onboard, high-bandwidth inter-FPGA RX/TX buses - dubbed Rapidchannel - capable of sustained, full-duplex raw data exchanges of 8 Gbps.
This link gives developers the flexibility to treat the two FPGA of the SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4 as one large resource, an essential feature in applications where high volumes of processing power are necessary.
The two ultrahigh-bandwidth LYRIO+ interfaces of the SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4 - capable of minimum sustained, full-duplex 12-Gbps raw data exchanges - also allow the FPGA of the clusters to communicate with other high-performance modules.
"Lyrtech reasserts its leadership in digital signal processing with the SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4, a world-class development platform for hybrid DSP-FPGA designs," says Benoit Fleury, Lyrtech's Marketing Vice President.
"Coupled with other complementary products from Lyrtech such as high-performance I/O and ADC/DAC modules, this powerful platform will offer endless possibilities to our customers in all regions of the world".
As for the DRC Virtex-4, it is a Lyrio+ expansion module compatible with carrier boards such as the SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4.
The module allows high-speed digital data transfers with the carrier board and makes possible interconnecting several SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4 or other Rapidchannel I/O boards such as the VHS-ADC/DAC Virtex-4 multichannel, high-speed convertor boards from Lyrtech.
The DRC Virtex-4 is equipped with a Virtex-4 LX25 or SX35 FPGA.
A DRC Virtex-4 equipped with an LX25 FPGA further increases the already impressive number of logic cells of the SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4, while a DRC Virtex-4 equipped with an SX35 FPGA gives the SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4 the much needed DSP slices (96 GMACS of FPGA-based DSP processing) for heavy DSP processing applications such as digital down-conversion filters.
The DRC Virtex-4 can also go as far as linking all the FPGA of a system of SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4, allowing them to be treated as one giant resource.
The SignalMaster Quad Virtex-4 and the DRC Virtex-4 can now be ordered from Lyrtech and Lyrtech distributors worldwide.
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