D/A converter-based FMC module for SDR, ECM, and radar system applications introduced by Curtiss-Wright

HIGH WYCOMBE, England, 20 Oct. 2009. Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing in High Wycombe, England, is introducing a VITA 57-standard FPGA mezzanine card (FMC) called the FMC-520, which is a dual/quad channel digital-to-analog converter (D/A converter) card that can support as many as four analog output channels updating at 500 megasamples per second or two analog output channels at 1 gigabit per second.

The card is for demanding military applications such as electronic countermeasures (ECM), software defined radio (SDR), and radar system applications that require high-speed A/D and D/A conversion. The FMC-520 routes the high-speed D/A I/O directly to the host board's FPGAs via the FMC connector.

Available in air- and conduction-cooled rugged versions, the FMC-520 has two Texas Instruments DAC5682Z 16-bit D/A converters, as well as an onboard programmable clock generator. The module comes with HDL example code.

FMC modules -- about half the size of PMC mezzanine modules -- enable field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) on the host board to control I/O devices on the mezzanine card. The FMC connector provides I/O pins that support high-speed signals for moving data between the FMC and the FPGA.

For more information contact Curtiss-Wright online at www.cwcontrols.com.