Complete transceiver for 100MHz signal bandwidths

The Flexor Model 3312 FMC features four 250MHz, 16-bit A/Ds and two 800MHz, 16-bit D/As, which are supported with matching Digital Down Converters (DDCs) and interpolation filters as Intellectual Property (IP) installed in the FPGA.

“These FlexorSet combinations include the most commonly required IP functions for data acquisition and signal generation applications,” said Rodger Hosking, Vice President of Pentek. "Because of these pre-configured functions and supporting software, our customers can start capturing and generating signals within minutes after opening the box.”

Each FlexorSet is a multichannel, high-speed data converter sub-system with highly programmable analogue I/O signal interface suitable for connection to HF or IF ports of a communications or radar system, and supporting signal bandwidths up to 100MHz. The built-in data capture and playback features offer an ideal turnkey solution as well as a platform for developing and deploying custom FPGA-processing IP.

Each includes four 250MHz, 16-bit A/Ds using two TI ADS42LB69s. A single TI DAC5688 provides a digital upconverter and two 800MHz, 16-bit D/As. Four banks of DDR3 SDRAM provide a generous 4GB of storage for data processing. In addition to supporting PCIe Gen. 3 as a native interface, the Model 5973-313 and Model 7070-313 include optional copper and optical gigabit serial connections to the Virtex-7 FPGA for custom I/O.

“The FlexorSet concept saves us a tremendous amount of time in setting up our recording systems for customers,” stated Chris Tojeira, Director of Pentek’s Talon Recording Solutions. “We can integrate these into our recorders straight out-of-the-box and immediately start to capture signals, saving us a tremendous amount of development time and getting us to deployment much faster.”

Bundling for seamless integration
Both FlexorSets come pre-configured with a suite of built-in functions for data capture, synchronisation, time tagging and formatting, all tailored and optimised for the FMC and carrier. This IP enables high performance capture and delivery of data to provide an ideal turn-key signal interface for radar, communications or general data acquisition applications, eliminating the integration effort typically left for the user when integrating the FMC and carrier.

Development tools and software support
FlexorSet presents system integrators with an ideal development and deployment platform for custom IP. The Pentek GateFlow FPGA design kit gives users access to the complete factory installed IP at the source level, allowing them to extend or even replace the built-in functions.

The Pentek GateXpress PCIe configuration manager supports dynamic FPGA reconfiguration though software commands as part of the runtime application. This provides an efficient way to quickly reload the FPGA, which slashes development time during testing. For deployed environments, GateXpress enables reloading the FPGA without the need to reset the host system, ideal for applications that require dynamic access to multiple processing IP algorithms.

The Pentek ReadyFlow Board Support Package is available for Windows and Linux operating systems. The ReadyFlow C-callable library contains a complete suite of initialisation, control and status functions, as well as a rich set of precompiled, ready-to-run-examples, to accelerate application development.

With a Pentek 8266 SPARK PC development system or a 8267 SPARK 3U VPX development system, work can begin immediately on applications. The SPARK system saves engineers the time and expense associated with building and testing a development system and ensures optimum performance of Pentek boards. All SPARK development systems come with software and hardware installed and ready for immediate operation. In many applications the SPARK development system can become the final deployed application platform.

Form factors, pricing and availability
FlexorSets are designed for air-cooled, conduction-cooled and rugged operating environments. The FlexorSet Model 5973-313 for 3U VPX and the FlexorSet Model 7070-313 for PCIe both start at $19,990. Delivery is 8-10 weeks ARO.