Press Release
Plextek demonstrates 'Diablo' at Paris Air Show
Plextek,
the independent electronics design consultancy, has designed a family of high
performance digital signal processing and analogue conditioning boards as
part of its highly embedded, robust, Digital Receiver
product line. Called the Diablo family, the DSP board, with plug-in modules
for radar, radio, receiver and modem applications, are designed for wide-ranging
use, from desktop to aircraft. Diablo will be on show at the Paris Air Show
(15th to 22nd of June 2003).
The Diablo family is based on the popular 3U CompactPCI
and PMC (PC Mezzanine Card) form factors, is easy to install and develop,
and features the Motorola MPC7410 PowerPC processor and a high gate-count
Xilinx Virtex II FPGA.
Both the DSP board and the PMC modules will be available
as Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products, yet Plextek, as an electronics
design house, is able to cost effectively customise the basic design according
to customer requirements, such as changes in peripherals, processor or FPGA.
Customers may also licence the design in full or part, and can benefit from
a low risk, rapid time-to-market option, while still retaining design ownership.
Designed for harsh environments with thermal management,
board stiffening and a screened enclosure, the Diablo boards also include
a number of features to minimise power consumption. The processor and FPGA
clock rates can be programmed so that processing throughput matches the application.
Phased control of on-board switching and linear regulators provides maximum
thermal efficiency and avoids peak current problems in the cardframe supplies.
Architecture is kept deliberately simple to maximise processing
capability. In order to make development and integration easy, a small number
of additional external interfaces are provided, including JTAG, RS232, RS422
and Ethernet.
The Diablo Radio and Diablo Modem PMC boards work together
with the DSP board. In a very simple and flexible interface, the radio and
modem components are linked directly to the FPGA on the DSP board via the
spare PMC pins, rather than the standard PMC/PCI interface, thereby improving
data transfer efficiency and reducing power.
Plextek will be part of the UK pavilion, organised by
The Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) - the national trade association
of the UK Aerospace Industry - at the Paris Air Show, Le Bourget, Paris, France.
Released
12/06/2003
