Pentek uses chassis and drives from Crystal Group to design rugged avionics data recorder

WASHINGTON, 17 Aug. 2011. Pentek Inc. in Upper Saddle River, N.J., is introducing the RTR 2746 real-time data recording and playback instrument for avionics in manned and unmanned aircraft, as well as for other aerospace and defense applications in operation in harsh environments. The multi-channel data recorder can digitize analog inputs as quickly as 200 megasamples per second per channel and stream data to mass storage at an aggregate rate of 1600 megabytes per second.In the playback mode, the RTR 2746 also can reproduce real-time analog outputs from the recorded data files. Remote users can control operation and visualize recorded data during operations with unmanned vehicles. The instrument is designed to meet MIL-STD-810F requirements for operation in harsh environments.The Pentek RTR 2746 uses a rugged chassis and rugged solid-state drives designed by Crystal Group Inc. in Hiawatha, Iowa. "Pentek's recording expertise joined with our rugged computer manufacturing capabilities gives developers a powerful new option for data collection and playback under airborne and other harsh operating conditions," says Crystal Group President Scott Kongable.

Pentek unveiled the RTR 2746 this week at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Unmanned Systems North America trade show in Washington.

The RTR 2746 provides real-time 16-bit data capture on several simultaneous channels using 200 MHz analog-to-digital converters and can play back recorded data through 1.25 GHz 16-bit digital-to-analog converters to reproduce the captured signal.

The RTR 2746 streams data at 1600 megabytes per second to or from as many as 48 solid-state drives in a RAID configuration, providing as much as 24 terabytes of storage. The solid state drives can support RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and 50. The NTFS data format enables users to remove drives and read data using Windows computers.

Based on Crystal Group's 4U server family chassis, the RTR 2746 operates in temperatures from -15 to 55 degrees Celsius, and can stretch to -40 to 71 C with solid-state drives and a high-temperature microprocessor. The aluminum chassis withstands the effects of vibration as strong as 4.43 gRMS 50-500 Hz, and operates at altitudes as high as 12,500 feet.

The chassis occupies a 4U, 24-inch deep space in a standard 19-inch rack and uses fans for cooling. SystemFlow software provides a graphical user interface and signal visualization and analysis tools. The RTR 2746 can be controlled remotely through a network connection.

For more information contact Pentek online at www.pentek.com, or Crystal Group at www.crystalrugged.com.

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