VITA 57.1 Archives - 4DSP | Embedded Systems Blog

16 Jun

4DSP Compact Embedded System Performance Boosted by UltraScale and SDAccel

We recently announced two new additions to our innovative compact embedded system (CES) product line. The CES820 and ruggedized CESCC820 both benefit from powerful new Kintex UltraScale FPGAs supplied by longtime 4DSP partner Xilinx, and they offer support for the most recent version of Xilinx’s SDAccel development environment for OpenCL™, C, and C++. While the CES820 features the same durable aluminum enclosure as the CES720, which 4DSP introduced in 2014 to much enthusiasm from our customers, it represents a step forward in performance for the CES line.

The CESCC820 goes even further by providing a conduction-cooled and more vibration-resistant chassis, as well as military-grade Meritec connectivity options. The more spacious, yet still compact enclosure offers the choice to install more than one FPGA Mezzanine card (FMC) inside as a build option. These attributes make the ruggedized model an ideal choice for a wide range of deployed embedded aerospace and defense applications where Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) are critical and more demanding IO or DSP requirements are called for.

Both CES820 versions have a quad-core, low-power Intel Atom CPU that is tightly coupled to the FPGA, making them perfect for handling the high-level programmability necessary to perform anti-jamming, compression, encryption, high-performance signal processing for such applications as communication signal analysis. The full list of features, data sheets, block diagrams, and additional photos of these systems can be found on their respective product pages: CES820 and CESCC820.

FMC modules for these systems can be selected from 4DSP’s extensive and diverse portfolio or from a third-party vendor enabling extensive functional customization using VITA 57.1-compatible FPGA mezzanine cards. The 4DSP Board Support Package (BSP) and StellarIP firmware tool and library are included with these systems. These intuitive tools allow designers to jump into development with modular reference designs that exercise the systems’ capabilities and provide high-level interfaces and driver support.

These systems support the Xilinx SDAccel FPGA development environment. The newest version of SDAccel (2015.1) offers enhancements that make the Eclipse-based integrated development environment easier to use as a result of new debug and profiling features that speed the development and deployment of OpenCL, C, and C++ kernels. This release also builds on SDAccel’s Khronos standard compliance, supporting a new OpenCL Installable Client Driver (ICD). The ICD extension allows multiple implementations of OpenCL to co-exist on the same system, giving applications developers the ability to choose between CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs in real-time. This accelerates run time and results in power savings.

Looking ahead, as an SDAccel development environment-certified Xilinx Alliance Member, 4DSP’s future FPGA-based board and system-level products will also support SDAccel as part of our continuing effort to give system designers the very best tools for efficiently achieving great results.

13 Feb

New 4DSP White Paper Roundup

4DSP has added a few new white papers to our website to provide more information about some of our products and elaborate on the functional advantages of the technologies and standards they are based upon. We also highlight some of the challenges inherent to several applications and demonstrate how our boards, backplanes and systems can help you achieve a successful design while minimizing both costs and development times.

The product page for our compact and highly adaptable line of FlexVPX 3U VPX-compliant backplanes now features a paper outlining the benefits of this innovative design for VPX systems and some context about the growth of the OpenVPX (VITA 65) standard for systems development. The paper features a contribution from the US Naval Research Laboratory, where the FlexVPX concept was developed as a way to reduce the Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) of embedded systems using two and three-slot backplanes that allow for backplane functionality to be subdivided across several smaller boards. This increases flexibility in the physical packaging of system processing hardware to accommodate the limited physical space available in many military and commercial systems.

VPB601 VPX backplane

To support our FMCs (FPGA mezzanine cards) that make use of the JESD204B serial interface standard, another white paper is available on the product pages for the FMC144, FMC142, FMC140, and FMC176 modules. JESD204B offers a reliable, efficient and flexible alternative to the typical LVDS and CMOS interfaces used between FPGA or DSPs and data converters. It reduces the number of interconnects required to interface high-speed (>10 Msps) ADC and DAC converters on an FMC to an FPGA on a carrier card. This makes it possible to design for smaller form factors while maintaining system performance.

Typical ADC to FPGA Configurations Using JESD204B (source: Xilinx)

Typical ADC to FPGA Configuration Using JESD204B (source: Xilinx)

Multi-antenna array (photo Gareth Ellner)

We look at the topic of using FPGAs for beamforming in wireless telecommunications and radar applications in the FPGAs for Better Beamforming Performance paper featured on many of the pages for products that are well suited for beamforming, including the Xilinx Virtex-7-based FM788 and the FMC168.

The heavy computational loads and very high bandwidth required to digitally process signals in real time can quickly overtax traditional CPUs and DSPs when used in adaptive beamforming for mobile networks. Much higher performance FPGAs, on the other hand, are ideal for this purpose due to their embedded DSP blocks, parallel processing architecture, and enhanced memory capabilities. FPGAs similarly offer a big advantage over CPU and GPU options in radar systems that employ advanced digital beamforming techniques because they can reduce, cost, complexity, and power consumption.

The VPX for System Development white paper looks at the cost benefits of using the VPX standard (VITA 46) when designing high-performance, rugged embedded systems for aerospace and defense applications involving high-frequency signals. It is available on the product pages for our 3U VPX FPGA carrier cards, such as the VP780, and our VPX systems, including the VPX360.

VPX360 Desktop VPX System

The paper outlines the advantages of using designs centered on FPGAs and FMCs to improve project risk management and reduce time-to-market. The OpenVPX ecosystem offers flexibility and performance when planning new designs. It is effective for system upgrades and technology insertion, and it simplifies the incorporation of new technologies such as higher resolution A/Ds and D/As as they become available.

More white papers are in the works on other topics and technologies, so stay tuned!

02 Dec

4DSP Adds New FMCs for Clock Generation and Distribution

4DSP is proud to announce two new FPGA mezzanine cards (FMCs) that supersede our popular FMC408 clock and trigger distribution module, which was released in August 2013. The FMC406 and FMC407 are low-noise, clock generation and distribution cards that feature eight synchronized clock outputs and eight synchronized PPS (pulse-per-second) signals which make it possible to easily build high-speed multichannel solutions. They can either distribute an externally supplied or a locally generated clock. A synchronous trigger signal received from the FMC connector is distributed to the eight trigger outputs. Additionally, an external trigger signal can be synchronized to the output clocks and distributed on the eight trigger outputs, and it is possible to distribute the external 1PPS or a locally generated 1PPS signal for data time-stamping. 4DSP FMC406/07

The FMC406 can generate any clock frequency between 34.375 MHz and 250MHz. The maximum clock frequency can be extended to 350MHz as a build option. The FMC407, on the other hand, can generate any clock frequency between 34.375 MHZ and 4.4GHz. Both designs are based on Analog Devices‘ ADF4351 PLL synthesizer. This is combined with the Cypress Semiconductor CY29948AXI LVCMOS fan-out buffer on the FMC406 and with the Analog Devices’ ADCLK954 LVPECL fan-out buffer on the FMC407.

Many applications will require the FMC407 because the LVPECL electrical output it uses is much more common for clock interfaces. It enables higher frequencies and the signal integrity is maintained by having a 50 ohm load. The FMC406, however, offers LVCMOS which provides a limited frequency range but is DC-coupled and can be used to drive into high-impedance loads. The FMC406 was designed at the request of a 4DSP client, and we now make it available to any customer who may have similar requirements.

These cards are recommended for applications that require synchronous A/D or D/A sampling across multiple cards or systems. With a low-pin count connector and front panel I/O, both modules can be used in a conduction-cooled environment. When combined with several eight-channel FMC168 analog-to-digital conversion modules from 4DSP, these cards can provide 64 fully synchronous A /D channels that can be enclosed in a single ruggedized chassis or 3U server.

Please note that the FMC408 is still supported by 4DSP, but we recommend the FMC406 and FMC407 for new designs. Contact sales@4dsp.com for more details.

17 Oct

4DSP Expands its line of FMCs

This week, 4DSP announced the new FMC170 FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC), expanding our growing line of FMC products which leads the industry in performance and functionality. The VITA 57.1-compliant FMC170 is an A/D and D/A module for single-channel data acquisition and high-speed signal processing and recording. This daughter card provides one 10-bit A/D channel with speeds up to 5 Gsps and one 10-bit D/A channel at 5 Gsps. It delivers high-bandwidth connectivity for calculation-heavy FPGA-based applications and is very well-suited for high-performance applications in the communications, medical, and defense industries. The low-latency data path of the FMC170 enables 2.5GHz of instantaneous bandwidth in both the receive and transmit directions, making it an ideal choice for the high data throughput requirements of RADAR/SONAR and aerospace applications, among others.

Last month, we announced a trio of new cards led by the FMC144 A/D and D/A module. It provides four 16-bit A/D channels with speeds up to 370MSPS and four 16-bit D/A channels up to 2.5GSPS. This daughter card is capable of digitizing data over multiple channels required for beamforming and direction finding which makes it well-suited for multi-antenna arrays used in the telecommunications industry.

The Texas Instruments (TI) DAC38J84 D/A and ADC16DX370 A/D converters on the FMC144 can also support RADAR and such wide-bandwidth test applications as mobile testing devices and arbitrary waveform generators because of the high-speed JESD204B serial interface between the data converters and the FPGA. The FMC142 offers the same performance in a two-channel configuration, while the FMC140 module provides four channels of analog-to-digital conversion.

The FMC144 is a standard FMC module with a high-pin count (HPC) connector on the bottom of the card, but it can also be configured as a stackable module with HPC connectors on both sides. Stacked FMCs enable high-channel density and expanded functionality in a small hardware footprint with low power consumption for applications where space is limited such as in aircraft instrumentation and mobile telecom equipment.

TI has been showcasing the FMC144 in combination with the Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale FPGA KCU105 Evaluation Kit at the ongoing series of Avnet X-Fest training events being held throughout North America, Asia, Europe and Japan through January 2015. Next stop, Chicago! The FMC144 and Kintex Ultrascale combo delivers performance and bandwidth that exceed that of existing solutions while reducing power consumption. More details about all of our new FMCs can be found on their respective product pages.

http://www.4dsp.com/FMC170.php
http://www.4dsp.com/FMC144.php
http://www.4dsp.com/FMC142.php
http://www.4dsp.com/FMC140.php

25 Jul

Welcome to the 4DSP Embedded Systems Blog

4DSP’s 10 year anniversary is a good time to inaugurate this new blog which will cover applications and developments in the embedded system world and what is going on at 4DSP. We will also highlight how our high-performance embedded solutions enable clients worldwide to achieve success in their businesses and research programs.

Founded in Reno, Nevada in the summer of 2004 by CTO Pierrick Vulliez, 4DSP has expanded its product portfolio from the first groundbreaking Floating Point IEEE-754 FPGA IP core and a Xilinx-based FPGA card into a wide range of FPGA Mezzanine Cards (FMC), FPGA carrier cards and system solutions in a variety of form factors. Based in Austin, Texas since 2010 with a European office in the Netherlands since 2006, the core of the business is a talented team of hardware, firmware, and software engineers dedicated to delivering cutting-edge products, turnkey solutions, and tailor-made support for the most demanding applications in the aerospace, defense, energy, and telecom industries among others.

As we look forward to the challenges and opportunities of the next decade, we continue to build our selection of high-performance FPGA boards and systems while developing new additions to a diverse selection of about 25 FMC products. 4DSP is also planning the spin off of our fiber optic sensing business which specializes in state-of-the-art data acquisition and processing systems based on technology developed in conjunction with NASA. By using optical fiber treated with Fiber Bragg gratings from partner FBGS, 4DSP’s revolutionary optical sensing instruments are capable of real-time shape, strain, and temperature sensing that increases efficiency, safety, and performance in such industries as aerospace, oil & gas, and biomedical.

Stay tuned to this space for more updates.