Low-cost versions of FPGA-based 3U OpenVPX software radio modules offered by Pentek

July 22, 2013
UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J., 22 July 2013. Pentek Inc. in Upper Saddle River, N.J., is introducing the 52xxx family of 3U OpenVPX software radio modules family with Xilinx Virtex-6 and Virtex-7 field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for high-performance military and avionics applications.

UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J., 22 July 2013.Pentek Inc. in Upper Saddle River, N.J., is introducing the 52xxx family of 3U OpenVPX software radio modules family with Xilinx Virtex-6 and Virtex-7 field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for high-performance military and avionics applications.

The 52xxx family is suitable for such applications as signals intelligence (SIGINT) and communications intelligence (COMINT) receivers for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), airborne communication transceivers and radar countermeasures, shipboard diversity transceivers and armored vehicle anti-improvised explosive devices (IED) systems.

The 15-watt power savings boosts packaging densities, processing efficiencies and overall system performance. Pentek's 52xxx OpenVPX modules support VPX REDI (VITA 48) and have the ruggedized construction and extended temperature options essential for military equipment. The products are available in commercial and rugged packages, with air-cooled and conduction-cooled options.

"Customers can jump-start their development effort in a low-cost desktop PC and then deploy 3U OpenVPX 52xxx boards in the final application system," says Rodger Hosking, vice-president of Pentek.

The modules support PCI Express x4 over the VPX P1 connector, and are compatible with Pentek's 53xxx 3U OpenVPX modules, which include a programmable serial fabric crossbar switch.

All 52xxx OpenVPX products are available with a choice of Xilinx Virtex-6 or Virtex-7 FPGA devices to match the application. Other common has include PCI Express (Gen 2) interfaces as many as four lanes wide, synchronous clocking locked to an external system reference and an LVPECL synch bus for synchronizing several modules to increase channel count.

The 52xxx family provides standard and customizable processing power. Pentek installs numerous signal processing, data acquisition, and control functions in the Virtex FPGA to support popular radar and communications applications.

Pentek's GateFlow FPGA design kits allow integration of additional custom signal processing algorithms to meet special application requirements. GateFlow kits include VHDL source files for all standard board has and work with the Xilinx ISE Foundation Design tools. Software development tools for C-programming include ReadyFlow Board Support packages for Windows and Linux operating systems.

For more information contact Pentek online at www.pentek.com.

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