Product category:
Sensors and Data Acquisition
News Release from: Pentek | Subject: RTS 2504
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 18 May 2006
Recorder has single-slot radio
transceiver onboard
Pentek has released the latest in its RTS family of real-time data recording and playback platforms, the RTS 2504.
Pentek has released the latest in its RTS family of real-time data recording and playback platforms, the RTS 2504 The RTS platforms are complete, fully integrated instruments featuring a range of A/D and D/A resources with high-speed links to cost-effective JBOD disk arrays
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 14 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
DSP board aims for leading edge imaging
Researchers at the University of Washington and IBM are using a DSP-based VME platform to help develop a practical technology for imaging the three-dimensional structure of individual molecules.
Upgraded VME board has more power and peripherals
Due to strong demand for the industry's first onboard, one-slot Fibre Channel VME board, Pentek now offers additional I/O, memory and real-time processing options.
The RTS 2504 uses Pentek's 7140 PMC radio transceiver module for acquiring live IF or RF analogue signals for disk storage and playing back signal files through D/A convertors to deliver IF or RF analogue outputs.
Occupying a single VMEbus slot, the RTS 2504 is a fully programmable development platform that offers the flexibility of FPGA technology and targets high-bandwidth data recording and playback applications such as radar, direction finding, Sigint, telemetry and commercial wireless basestations.
"This fourth member of the RTS platform family represents big steps in both density and technology", says Pentek Vice President Rodger Hosking.
Further reading
Speedy sampling for VMEbus DSP board
A new single-channel 6U VMEbus board features one of the fastest 12bit A/D convertors in the market with sampling rates to 210MHz.
Mezzanine board puts FPGA signal processing on VME
A novel configurable logic VIM-2 (Velocity Interface Mezzanine) module features dual FPGAs from the new high-density Xilinx Virtex-II Pro family, including Models XC2VP20 and XC2VP50.
Multiband receivers made for CompactPCI systems
Pentek has made its first foray into the cPCI market with 16- and 32-channel multiband-receiver boards featuring 14bit A/D convertors and Virtex-II FPGAs for signal processing.
"Our previous transceiver system required two different mezzanine cards, but the 7140 combines all functions in a single transceiver PMC module, freeing a mezzanine site for additional functions".
"New resources inside the 7140 include a Virtex-II Pro FPGA with onboard processors and gigabit serial interfaces, plus 512Mbyte of fast, onboard SDRAM".
Like other RTS family members, the RTS 2504 benefits from Pentek's SystemFlow application program interface (API) and development library software, which ensures a consistent look and feel for developers across all the RTS platforms.
SystemFlow software allows developers to configure and customise the unit's interfaces and behaviours.
It includes code not only for the real-time data acquisition and playback system, but also for the user-control software running on the host PC, including the GUI.
All source code and an API are provided, allowing developers to either modify the sample code to meet their needs or use it as a reference for custom software development.
The RTS 2504 platform accepts signals through two 14bit A/Ds sampling at up to 105MHz and passes the signals to a Virtex-II Pro FPGA for signal processing and data handling.
The FPGA works in conjunction with a 4-channel Graychip/TI GC4016 digital receiver to extract and tune narrowband channels with bandwidths ranging from audio up to 2.5MHz.
For applications that require even wider bandwidths, Pentek offers the GateFlow IP Core 421 high-performance digital down-convertor.
Delivering output bandwidths up to 45MHz, it can be factory installed on the 7140 PMC module.
For high-channel count applications, Pentek offers the GateFlow IP Core 430 providing up to 256 digital down-convertor channels with programmable bandwidths from 8 to 80kHz.
The unit can send the wideband or DDC output data through its built-in FibreChannel interface to record data on a hard disk array at speeds up to 160Mbyte/s.
In addition to the receiver section, the RTS 2504 offers a transmit section with interpolation filters, a digital upconvertor and two 16bit D/As.
Drawing data from the disk array or other I/O, the upconvertor mode supports frequency translation of baseband signals to IF frequencies as high as 160MHz, delivering either real or I/Q analogue outputs.
In the D/A mode, two independent playback channels are interpolated and then delivered to the D/A convertors at sampling rates up to 500MHz.
The RTS 2504 occupies a single 6U VME card, allowing as many as 20 units to fit into a standard card cage.
System developers can synchronise multiple modules to create a single system with as many as 40 transceiver channels.
Multiple FPGAs reside within the RTS 2504 hardware, providing engineers with the ability to add signal processing, formatting and data manipulation functions, directly within the datapath, for both the input and output channels.
Pentek supports developers' in using the system's FPGAs with its GateFlow FPGA design kit for custom IP development.
The kit includes design information, software files, optimised DSP functions and development utilities.
In addition, IP cores can also be pre-installed at the factory so customers can benefit from FPGA technology with zero development effort.
Pentek's GateFlow IP cores include wideband and narrowband digital down-convertors, fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) and pulse-compression algorithms.
The RTS 2504 data recording and playback platform hardware is priced starting at US $26,995, available Q3 2006.
Developers who do not already have SystemFlow software can obtain the software separately for US $8500.
• Pentek: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
