ICS-8550

Designed to bring more bandwidth and processing power to Software Defined Radio applications, the ICS-8550 XMC/PMC module features two analog inputs equipped with AD9430 210 MHz, 12-bit ADCs, and a Xilinx Virtex-4 XC4VFX60 FPGA. This card has been optimized for wide bandwidth front-end DSP processing associated with digital receiver applications common to spectrum monitoring, signal intelligence, communications and radar systems. Careful selection of components and thermal management techniques allow intensive DSP functionality to be maintained at sample rates up to 210 MHz, in some very demanding environments, including zero air-flow situations that demand conduction cooling. The clean design of the card has left substantial portions (approximately 95%) of the Virtex-4 available for user applications.

Included with the ICS-8550 is a complete Hardware Development Kit (HDK) for the Xilinx ISE Foundation development environment, enabling system designers to effeciently develop new FPGA applications. The ICS-8550 HDK includes two core designs, a default logic core and a fully programmable, dual channel, Digital Downconverter (DDC) IP core. The default logic core, designed to provide minimum occupancy of the FPGA, includes an A/D interface and data buffering to the high-speed serial outputs and provides a basis for customers to program their own functionality. The DDC core provides for programmable decimation ratios of 1 through 16 with real or complex outputs. The output selection options include high-speed serial outputs or the PCI bus. The 18-bit filter coefficients can be independently programmed for each channel; a standard coefficient set is included in the design. Also provided are input and output gain controls, a peak signal detector and a test signal capability.

By locating the powerful FPGA immediately after the ADCs, the ICS-8550 allows the system architect to place most, if not all, of the IF processing very close to the antenna. Despite being able to process the raw data onboard, the high bandwidth applications targeted by this product may need to move large amounts of data to back-end DSP engines. The ICS-8550 addresses this need with eight lanes of high-speed serial I/O routed through an XMC (Vita 42) connector. This connection allows XMC equipped carrier cards such as the V4DSP to add wideband ADC capability in a highly integrated fashion. In the event that an XMC connection is not available, the 64/66 PCI interface provides data transfer rates in excess of 400 MBytes/sec (sustained aggregate rate - not the burst rate), while the Pn4 user I/O port allows the possibility of even higher data rates, and elimination of interrupt latencies.

Optional front panel connectors include an 8-plug Samtec GRF1-J connector (for ruggedization levels 1, 2 and 3), or 8 individual MMCX connectors (for ruggedization levels 4 and 5).

Recommended replacement product is the ICS-1572 (XMC and Level 1 only)

• Two ADC channels (Analog Devices AD9430): 12 bits @ 210 MHz
• Xilinx Virtex-4 FX60 FPGA with two IP cores (1 default logic core, 1 fully programmable DDC core)
• Hardware Development Kit (HDK) included
• High-speed serial I/O through XMC connector
• Companion to V4DSP
• Windows, Linux and VxWorks device drivers
• Extensive application and technical support available
• For Ruggedization Levels, please see the configuration guide under the downloads tab
• Sensor Processing Resource Center
• Ruggedization Levels