Board of interfaces
14 May 2008
A data-acquisition system that combines PowerPC, FPGA, and multiple high-speed gigabit serial interfaces has been launched
Pentek’s Model 4207 employs Freescale’s MPC8641D Dual Core PowerPC AltiVec Processor and a Xilinx Virtex-4 FX Series FPGA. In addition, Pentek’s fabric-transparent crossbar switch bridges a wealth of gigabit serial resources, including the PowerPC and FPGA, two XMCs, dual VXS ports, dual Fibre Channel ports and two optical serial transceivers. Native protocols support PCI Express, Serial RapidIO, Fibre Channel and Aurora, all accommodated by the crossbar switch. Up to 4GB of fast DDR2 SDRAM simplifies data buffering and boosts real-time signal processing.
The Model 4207 combines many standard interfaces and protocols; VXS, PMC, XMC, PCI-X, PCI Express, gigabit Ethernet, RocketIO, Serial RapidIO, Fibre Channel, Xilinx Aurora and VME64x technologies in one flexible, single-slot solution. The crossbar switch, the two PMC/XMC sites and the userprogrammable FPGA offer customers the connectivity and flexibility they need to handle a range of tough applications and the on-board Fibre Channel interface makes the 4207 ideal for high-speed real-time recording at rates up to 800MB/sec.
However, by depopulating features, lower-cost versions of the board can also handle relatively simple systems, like a single-board computer with a PowerPC and single PMC module. It is equipped with either a single-core MPC8641 or a dual-core MPC8641D executing at a maximum frequency of 1.5GHz. The AltiVec Freescale PowerPC processors perform 128bit parallel processing of multiple data elements (single-instruction, multiple-data stream) and deliver DSP (digital signal processing) floating-point processing rates of up to 12,000GFLOPS.
The processor includes built-in gigabit fabric support with 8x PCI Express and 4x Serial RapidIO serial data ports. Up to 2GB DDR2 SDRAM is available to the processor for programme and data memory, along with a non-volatile 128MB flash for initialisation, self-test and boot code. Processor clock options are from 1.0GHz to 1.5GHz.
The Model 4207 includes options for an on-board Xilinx Virtex-4 FX Series FPGA, the XC4VFX60, or XC4VFX100. Two 4X RocketIO ports provide a high-speed serial path between the FPGA and the crossbar switch for connection to other parts of the board, including the processor, VXS interface and XMC sites. These ports can also be configured as four 2X paths. Alternatively, the FPGA can be equipped with 1GB or 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM along with 128MB flash.
Furthermore, it is possible to take advantage of unused FPGA resources to implement custom signal-processing algorithms and process captured data in real time. Pentek offers its GateFlow FPGA resources to simplify FPGA development tasks.
Pentek’s GateFlow FPGA design kit enables the onboard FPGA to be configured by the user for implementation of custom preprocessing functions such as FFTs, FIR filters and software-radio blocks. The kit also includes VHDL source files and works in conjunction with the Xilinx ISE Foundation design tools.
Fabric-transparent crossbar
In addition to the processing power, the fabric-transparent crossbar switch of the Model 4207 offers high-speed connectivity. Since the processor configures all routing paths, the switch simply passes the gigabit serial traffic from one port to another independently of particular protocols. Also, multiple data streams can be sent through the switch simultaneously, even if they have different protocols.
As all high-speed interfaces on the board connect through the switch, paths can be configured to meet specific requirements. For example, XMC modules can transfer data through the switch to the on-board FPGA, to the processor, to the other XMC, or to another board over the VXS connector. Similar types of connections are available for other resources by using any protocol that the connected devices support, including Serial RapidIO, PCIExpress, Xilinx Aurora and InfiniBand protocols.
Power and speed
The Model 4207 provides designers with power, speed and connectivity in a single-slot solution, making it suitable for wideband, data acquisition and recording, real-time digital signalprocessing, and software-radio applications.
Pentek VxWorks and Linux board support packages provide software developers with a library of hardware initialisation control and application functions to be used in a real-time VxWorks or Linux operating environment. Pentek develops, manufactures and markets DSP systems to OE manufacturers and distributors. The company offers VME, VXS, PMC, XMC, cPCI and PCI boards for data acquisition, software radio and DSP, featuring Texas Instruments C6000 DSPs, Freescale G4 PowerPCs and Xilinx FPGAs. Pentek’s I/O includes A/Ds, D/As, FPGAs, and digital up/down converters. Pentek equips all products with high-performance I/O (including Gigabit serial interfaces) and offers DSP software support.
The Model 4207 is compatible with any COTS PMC or XMC module, and Pentek’s offerings include a variety of A/Ds, transceivers, digital receivers, and processing PMC and XMC modules. Ruggedised and conduction-cooled versions are available now and prices start at $14,725.
RODGER HOSKING is vice president, Pentek
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