Product category:
VMEbus Boards and Assemblies
News Release from: Pentek | Subject: Model 6890
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 02 July 2007
Clocking board gets multichannel systems
in sync
Clock, synch and gate distribution board eases sampling and timing for a wide range of multichannel, high-speed data-acquisition, DSP and software-radio applications.
New from Pentek, the Model 6890 is a 2.2GHz clock, synch and gate distribution board for synchronising multiple Pentek I/O modules The Model 6890 facilitates sampling and timing for a wide range of multichannel, high-speed data-acquisition, DSP and software-radio applications
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 14 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Configured as a 6U VME board, the Model 6890 synchronises up to eight modules, each receiving a common clock up to 2.2GHz along with timing signals for synchronising, triggering and gating functions.
The Model 6890 currently supports Pentek's Model 6826 dual 2GHz, 10bit A/D convertor VME board.
Developed specifically to address the critical timing needs of synchronous multichannel data-acquisition and DSP systems, the Model 6890 board simplifies system integration tasks.
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.
For example, when combined with eight Model 6826 dual-channel 2GHz, 10bit A/D modules, the resulting system provides 16 A/D convertors all sampling at 2GHz, plus eight FPGAs with a total of 352,000 programmable slices and 800,000 logic cells.
Additional resources of up to 8Gbyte of DDR memory and 128Mbyte of Flash provide a complete real-time data acquisition and DSP environment for extremely wide band signals.
As Rodger Hosking, Vice President of Pentek, points out: "System developers of radar, telemetry and direction-finding communication systems operating at gigahertz frequencies have an especially tough job to make sure that all channels are sampling, triggering and capturing signals at precisely the same time".
"The 6890 saves our customers the costs and risks of developing their own custom timing solution, and we guarantee compatibility with our Model 6826 2GHz A/D board".
The Model 6826 features single- or dual-channel data acquisition at 2Gsample/s with 10bit resolution using the Atmel AT84AS008 A/D device.
By accepting single-ended transformer or DC-coupled inputs, the board preserves signal integrity across a variety of analogue signal sources.
Since its introduction into the marketplace more than a year ago, this product has opened up a whole new range of previously unattainable frequencies and applications.
It directly digitises signal bandwidths up to nearly 900MHz, thereby capturing wideband radar and communication signals as a single channel instead of digitising several smaller bandwidth slices.
The inclusion of the Virtex-II Pro FPGA is essential for processing these wideband signals to extract information and reduce datarates to a manageable level within the system.
The AT84AS008 combines dynamic performance, compactness and ease of use to speed system development with Pentek's high-performance VME board.
With a density equivalent of more than 11 million system gates, the Xilinx XC2VP100 Virtex-II Pro FPGA offers a powerful signal-processing resource for the formidable stream of data from the A/D convertors.
Onboard logic first de-multiplexes the 2GHz raw 10bit A/D samples by a factor of eight, producing 80bit words at a reduced rate of 250MHz for successful delivery to the FPGA.
The FPGA then performs various standard functions on the data, including memory transfers, formatting, triggering, gating and delivery to the FPDP and VMEbus interfaces.
The FPGA also handles the switched, serial-fabric VXS interface using the on-chip RocketIO gigabit serial transceivers.
As most of the logic and DSP resources remain unused for these factory functions, developers can take advantage of these parallel-processing structures to implement custom signal-processing algorithms and process captured data in real time.
To simplify FPGA development tasks, Pentek offers its GateFlow FPGA Resources, which include the GateFlow FPGA Design Kit, GateFlow IP Cores Libraries and GateFlow factory installed IP Cores.
In addition, Pentek's ReadyFlow libraries enable the user to control the Model 6826 across the backplane from SBC and DSP boards through high-level C-callable commands.
The Model 6826 also features extensive memory resources.
Dual 64bit high-speed DDR SDRAMs provide a total of 512Mbyte or 1Gbyte of memory to store raw data in transient-capture mode.
The memory can also be used as an elastic buffer for storing burst signals like radar pulses in real time and subsequent delivery to the I/O interfaces at a lower continuous rate.
Custom FPGA configurations can take advantage of this large memory for more complex applications.
Flash memory of 16Mbyte allows boot-code storage for the two IBM 405 PowerPC microcontroller cores within the FPGA.
To support high-bandwidth data capture, the board includes several high-speed I/O channels to move the raw data offboard for storage or processing.
Two or four channels of FPDP-II data ports, operating at up to 400Mbyte/s each, deliver processed and demultiplexed data through legacy connections to other VME cards.
In addition, the board offers two serial switched-fabric VXS connections, each running full-duplex at 1.25Gbyte/s to support the Xilinx Aurora, Serial RapidIO and PCI Express protocols.
LVDS I/O is also available at either front- or rear-panel connections.
Pricing for the Model 6890 starts at US $4995, with availability at 8 to 10 weeks ARO.
The single-channel version of the Model 6826 starts at US $19,345, with availability at 8 to 10 weeks ARO.
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