High-speed A/D & D/A features turn-key multichannel

The Model 3324 FMC front end accepts four analogue HF or IF inputs on front panel connectors with transformer coupling into two Texas Instruments ADS54J69 dual A/D converters, boosting density for high channel count systems.

On the output side, a Texas Instruments DAC38J84 D/A converter accepts baseband real or complex data streams from the FPGA. Each stream then passes through digital interpolation and upconversion stages before delivery to the D/A. Output sampling rates up to 1.5GHz are supported, with or without translation.

FlexorSet carriers support the 3324 FMC with a choice of Virtex-7 FPGAs to match the specific requirements of the processing task. Optional optical interfaces for gigabit serial inter-board communication and optional LVDS connections to the Virtex-7 FPGA for custom I/O afford flexible configuration of the platform.

“These FlexorSet carriers include critical IP for data converters, memory and system interfaces plus additional signal processing resources for custom tasks,” said Rodger Hosking, Vice-President, Pentek. "The Model 3324 FMC delivers a high-density front end, nicely balanced with four wideband analog inputs and outputs and superior signal quality. Pentek now can offer twice the number of channels at twice the sampling rate of previous models.”

Both FlexorSets come pre-configured with a suite of built-in functions for data acquisition, time tagging and waveform playback, 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 and general data acquisition applications, eliminating the FMC/carrier integration effort typically left to the user.

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.

Pentek’s 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, suitable for applications that require dynamic access to multiple processing IP algorithms.

Pentek’s ReadyFlow Board Support Package is available with drivers 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, accelerate application development.

By plugging the FlexorSets into a Pentek 8266 SPARK PC development system or a 8267 SPARK 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.