Digital Signal Corp. (DSC) in Alexandria, Va., is implementing the Spectrum Signal Processing (USA) Inc. flexComm SDR-4000 software-defined radio in developing a laser radar for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
Spectrum’s SDR-4000, a 3U CompactPCI platform, offers real-time processing in a small, low-power configuration.
The hardware/software solution combines a Pro-4600 SDR modem processing engine, XMC-3321 dual transceiver input/output mezzanine card, and RapidIO interconnect between the cards.
“Spectrum has also integrated several third-party hardware and software components into the subsystem to reduce our time to field trial, and enable our development team to concentrate on enhancing critical features of the application,” says Ken Belsley, chief scientist at DSC.
The platform can not only be customized to specific applications, but also optimized to meet specific size, weight, power consumption, and ruggedization requirements.
The DOD’s laser-radar-based system, currently in the prototyping phase, is being developed to perform 3-D facial-recognition functions in a fraction of a second from distances of more than 10 meters.
Field trials of the new system are expected to take place late this year, with production units becoming available as early as 2007. For more information, visit www.spectrumsignal.com.
