Signal processor combines DSP and multichannel communications

VMETRO in Houston is offering the 3CPF1 signal-processing engine that combines the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a Freescale PowerPC central processor, and multichannel communications in a rugged 3U board. This signal processor is for applications that require complex signal processing closely coupled to high-bandwidth data I/O in tight spaces, such as optoelectronics, signals intelligence, and electronic warfare. Using FPGAs for signal processing can increase speed such that a Fourier transform can be calculated 10 to 20 times faster on an FPGA than on a PowerPC general-purpose processor. Six independent banks of memory are included, four banks of 2M × 18-bit QDR-II SRAM and two banks of 64-megabyte DDR SDRAM. The board eliminates off-board data I/O bottlenecks with eight 3.125-gigabit-per-second RocketIO serial channels, a high-bandwidth backplane connector, and parallel I/O, all coupled to the FPGA. The 3CPF1 uses the VxWorks real-time operating system, while Linux support is in development. For more information contact VMETRO online at www.vmetro.com.