The 4DSP CES720 is ideal for FMC Deployment

We are proud to highlight here in Austin the recent release of a new Compact Embedded System that is ideal for prototyping and development of high-speed data acquisition solutions. It is designed to serve as an embedded platform for deployment in UAVs or other applications with stringent size and weight requirements (SWaP-C). Known as the CES720, this small form factor, stand-alone system provides a complete and generic processing platform for data acquisition, signal processing, and communication.

The system is notable for both the performance it can deliver and its small size. Housed in an enclosure measuring about five inches square and three inches high, the highly portable CES720 weighs less than one kilogram. It features a low-power x86 CPU that is tightly coupled to a high-performance Xilinx Kintex-7 410T FPGA. This combination provides a flexible and powerful processing backbone for interfacing to the FMC site, CPU, and external DDR3 SDRAM, with plenty of room left over for Digital Signal Processing (DSP).

The flexibility of the CES720 allows users to customize the IO and DSP functionality of the system for a wide range of uses by choosing the FMC that best suits their needs. A removable panel on top of the enclosure allows easy access for installing an FMC chosen from 4DSP’s selection of 25 different modules. Alternatively, any one of a growing number of VITA 57.1-compatible cards from different vendors (more than 100, according to the VITA Standards Organization) can be installed in the CES720. The modularity of using FMCs with an FPGA carrier opens up opportunities to tailor a system for such applications as software-defined radio (SDR), beamforming, RADAR, and medical imaging among others.

Currently available as an air-cooled unit, the CES720 will also be released as a conduction-cooled Small Form Factor (SFF) solution later this year. Based on the emerging VITA 75 standard, the upcoming ruggedized version will be suitable for many applications where payload is limited. We will post more information about the new system here in the coming months.