ADC module

GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms has announced the ICS-1556B 4-channel 400 MHz 14-bit ADC PMC module.

It is designed for communications applications such as software defined radio, signals intelligence, digital receivers and tactical communications where the requirement is to convert analog data into digital information in as close to real time as possible.

The device has a high sampling rate (400 MHz) and very high resolution (14-bit).

This combination, coupled with onboard signal processing capability, allows simplification of VHF and some UHF radios.

The module can digitise these spectra directly, with minimal peripheral hardware. It allows intermediate analog down-conversion stages to be eliminated.

In particular, it enables the potential of software defined radio to be more completely exploited.

The device handles the increasing signal bandwidths, bringing together features such as high sample rate and high bit resolution, a capable front end data processing engine, flexible memory architecture and a large bandwidth bus interface.

The module also includes an onboard Xilinx Virtex -5 SX95T FPGA to allow users to develop their own front end signal processing functionality and execute it at high speed on the board, maximising overall system-level performance.

The device has four 14-bit ADCs sampling synchronously at frequencies up to 400 MHz, and a fast (64-bit/133 MHz) PCI-X interface.

The signal processing capability provided by the FPGA allows the user to perform standard functions such as wideband digital down conversion (DDC), Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and time stamping - or to implement any required functionality. A hardware development kit provides support for users who wish to implement their own signal processing algorithms in the FPGA.