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Create Without Limits: Add the Power of User-Programmable FPGAs to Your Test Applications Farris Alhorr Business Development Manager RF & Wireless Comm farris.alhorr@
The Parameters of Instrumentation Product complexity Requirements Cost of test Number of tests Data acquired / stored Test and data throughput Time to market Product ASP 4
A New Approach: Modular Instruments Traditional Rack and Stack Modular Instruments 5
What Is a Modular Instrument? Computer Timing and Synchronization Backplane Core Functionality Shared Components Software 6
PXI The de facto standard for Instrumentation 7
Complete PXI Instrumentation Portfolio DAQ and Control Multifunction I/O FPGA / Reconfigurable I/O Digital I/O Analog Input/Output Vision and Motion Counter/Timer/Clock Instruments Oscilloscopes High-Speed Digital Instruments Digital Multimeters Signal Generators Switching RF Analyzers,Generators Interfaces GPIB, USB, LAN RS232/RS485 CAN, LIN, DeviceNet SCSI, Ethernet VXI/VME Boundary Scan/JTAG 8
Advantages of Modular Instruments: Size Modular Instruments Traditional 9
Modular Instruments Interoperable Completely Interoperable 10
Modular Instrument Advantages 1. Speed 2. Flexibility 3. Integration 4. Size 5. Cost 11
Software-Defined Functionality 12
Software-Designed Instruments Out-of-the-box functionality with FPGA enhancements 13
Why Software-Designed Instrumentation? and New Software-Designed Instruments
Why FPGAs for Instruments? High-Throughput Processing Inherently parallel High clock rate Algorithm-specific pipelining Low-Latency Decision Making Custom logic in a single clock cycle Complete Determinism Design implemented in a custom circuit Reprogrammable Logic Design can be updated while system is running 15
User-Programmable FPGAs on Software-Designed Instruments Enable: 1. On-FPGA Measurements and Stimulus Generation 2. Closed-Loop or Protocol-Aware Test 3. Custom Triggering and Data Reduction 4. Deterministic Test Execution and DUT Control 5. DUT or Application-Specific Personalities Higher Test Throughput Hardware Re-Use and Future-Proofing Lower Total Cost of Test 16 New, Innovative Tests
Real-Time and Continuous DUT 1. On-FPGA Measurements and Stimulus Generation Higher Test Throughput Hardware Re-Use and Future-Proofing Lower Total Cost of Test 17 New, Innovative Tests
26.5 GHz Vector Signal Analyzer PXIe-5668 Specifications Frequency Range Analysis BW Phase Noise (Typ, @10kHz offset) Noise Floor TOI 20 Hz to 26.5 GHz 320 MHz below 3.6 GHz 765 MHz above 3.6 GHz -129 dbc/hz at 1 GHz <-145 dbm/hz (26 GHz) >+20 dbm (26 GHz) New Features Slots 7 Kintex-7 410T FPGA Programmable with LabVIEW 18
2 GHz Reconfigurable IF-Digitizer PXIe-5624R Specifications Sample Rate ADC Resolution Analog Bandwidth 2 GS/s 12-bit 2 GHz New Features Slots 1 Kintex-7 410T FPGA Programmable with LabVIEW PCI Express x8 Gen 2 bus interface (> 3 GB/s) 19
Real-Time Spectrum Analysis Features Gapless persistence, spectrogram, and trace statistics (max hold, min hold, average) calculated on FPGA Ability to process up to 2 M FFTs/s using overlapped, windowed FFTs Real-time frequency mask triggering 100% probability of intercept (POI) minimum duration options: 1 µs or >15 µs Source available upon request 20
Real-Time Spectrum Analysis PXIe-5668R VSA + PXIe-7976R FlexRIO in PXIe-1085 May use other P2P-capable RF analyzers Up to 800 MHz RF bandwidth (3 GB/s) 3 GB/s 21
Software-Designed Instrument. Software
Maximum Flexibility Maximum Compatibility Software-Designed Instrument Programming Options Instrument Driver Industry-standard programming paradigm Out-of-the-box functionality Instrument Driver FPGA Extensions Industry-standard programming paradigm Out-of-the-box functionality Application-specific FPGA enhancements LabVIEW Sample Projects and Instrument Design Libraries Variety of architectural templates End-to-end customization of processor and FPGA capabilities 23
Instrument Drivers Primary Benefit: Hardware Abstraction APIs for simplified instrument programming o LabVIEW API o C/C++ and.net APIs Code portability o Across driver versions o Across hardware devices o Across vendors (IviScope, IviDMM) NI-RFSA LabVIEW API NI Instrument Drivers Add: Configuration in NI MAX Soft front panels (SFPs) for interactive use Example programs that exercise full functionality of the API Integrated API help/documentation NI-RFSA Soft Front Panel 24
Instrument Driver FPGA Extensions Processor Real-Time or PC-Based FPGA Analog I/O Digital I/O Specialized I/O Custom I/O Bus Protocols The compatibility of industry-standard instrument drivers The flexibility of the LabVIEW RIO architecture Instrument Driver FPGA Extensions 25
Instrument Driver FPGA Extensions Embedded Controller (CPU) Host Application Instrument Driver API Application IP API PCI Express Host FPGA Vendor- Defined Application -Specific PCI Express Instrument Driver FPGA IP Data, Triggers, Device State Application IP Application-Specific FPGA VI Software-Designed Instrument (VST) 26
Thank You 27