Product category:
VMEbus Boards and Assemblies
News Release from: Pentek | Subject: Model 7142-428
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 08 November 2007
Complete software radio comes on PMC/XMC
module
The Model 7142-428 addresses an unprecedented range of commercial and military communication systems.
Pentek has released its Model 7142-428 digital transceiver with a multiband digital downconvertor (DDC) and interpolation filter A complete software radio system in a COTS PMC/XMC module, this latest offering from Pentek combines proven hardware and a new GateFlow IP core
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 14 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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It employs four A/D convertors and one D/A convertor capable of bandwidths exceeding 40MHz for connection to HF and IF ports of communications or radar systems.
In a transceiver, the decimation factor and interpolation factor determine the ratio between the IF frequency and the bandwidth of the received and transmitted signals.
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By offering a range of more than four orders of magnitude for both decimation and interpolation, the Model 7142-428 addresses an unprecedented range of commercial and military communication systems.
These include voice-band systems with 8kHz channels, through 1G, 2G and 3G wireless waveforms, and even the new emerging 4G standards with bandwidths to 20MHz and higher.
Worldwide markets for wireless web access for both fixed and mobile digital services are fuelling numerous wireless standards, each with unique signal requirements easily handled with this new product.
The highly programmable bandwidths offered in the Model 7142-428 also make it ideally suited for military software defined radio systems that require flexible hardware capable of emulating multiple radio waveforms.
"To summarise, we've taken a proven Pentek product, our Model 7142, and increased its performance to accommodate the growing number of communications standards our customers are looking for", says Rodger Hosking, Vice President, Pentek.
"The decimation and interpolation ranges in our Model 7142-428 cover virtually every requirement we've seen so far".
"Furthermore, this versatile new product can support systems being developed for new wideband radar and communication standards", he adds.
"Because the Model 7142-428 incorporates highly optimised, world-class FPGA IP cores fully supported with software drivers, our customers can eliminate FPGA development risks, and get their systems to market on time", concludes Hosking.
Commercial DDC ASIC offerings are divided into two classes by their decimation range: above 32 for narrowband devices and below 32 for wideband DDCs.
This limitation often forces customers to choose between DDCs or to use two devices to handle both classes.
Instead, each of the four DDCs in the 428 IP core is implemented as two cascaded DDC stages, each with a programmable decimation of 1 to 256.
Because the decimations from the two stages multiply, users can choose an overall decimation anywhere from 2 to 65,536.
As a result, each of these "multiband" DDC cores spans the decimation range of both wideband and narrowband DDCs, all in a single device.
The four down-converted DDC outputs are delivered to the PCI interface through independent FIFOs, each managed by its own DMA controller channel to simplify programming and improve data transfer rates.
Four 14bit A/D convertors at the front end operate at sample rates up to 125MHz.
Each of the four identical DDC engines uses an independent four-input multiplexer to select any one of these four A/Ds as its input source.
The four DDCs feature independent tuning and decimation to translate any frequency band at the input down to zero frequency.
On the upconverting side, a Texas Instruments DAC5686 offers a 500MHz 16bit D/A convertor and a digital upconvertor (DUC) operating at a sample rate of up to 320MHz.
The DUC has a built-in interpolation range of only x2 to x16.
The 428's IP core interpolation filter dramatically extends this rather limited range of interpolation by an additional factor of x2 to x2048, providing an overall range of x2 to x32,768.
This extended DUC interpolation range nicely matches the DDC decimation capabilities of 2 to 65,536, offering symmetrical support for transmit and receive functions for signals of any given bandwidth.
After interpolation, the DUC can be tuned to translate the baseband transmit signal frequency to any IF output frequency up to 140MHz.
All the new 428 IP core functions are fully supported by Pentek's ReadyFlow Board Support Packages.
Pentek's ReadyFlow BSPs simplify board operation and setup with easy-to-use function calls.
ReadyFlow libraries offer flexibility and provide low-level access to all of the board's hardware.
Pentek ReadyFlow BSPs and software development tools - plus third-party offerings - are all available for a variety of operating systems including Windows 2000/XP, Linux and VxWorks platforms.
All these software resources enable full control of all new features of the GateFlow 428 core, including configuration of the data flow into and out of the new IP core and full access to operating parameters including interpolation and decimation factors, DDC and DUC source selection, DDC tuning frequencies, filter coefficients, data formatting and modes of operation.
The Model 7142-428 PMC/XMC is priced at US $15,500, with delivery 8 to10 weeks ARO.
Support for Windows operating systems is immediately available.
Linux and VxWorks support will follow.
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