Systems for long-range methane detection system.

System yields faster analysis and repair of oil and gas operations to reduce the accidental leakage of methane.

FPGA cards are to be supplied into a basin-wide methane scanning and monitoring system by Abaco Systems. The system yields faster analysis and repair of oil and gas operations to reduce the accidental leakage of methane, which accounts for about 10% of US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The initial win of $350K has a large prospective upside through ongoing development.

Pete Thompson, vice president of product management for Abaco Systems, said, “Abaco’s commitment to innovation is clearly evidenced in the design and ongoing use of our FMC104 and FMC108 for research into eye-safe, long-path laser systems and now long-distance gas detection systems. We are thrilled to be a part of research paving the way with groundbreaking technologies that change the future of emissions mitigation efforts.”

The continuous monitoring system employs centralized eye-safe laser beams spanning regions measuring multiple square miles to quickly detect, locate, and size methane leaks in a dense infrastructure. What began in a university research lab later expanded into an ongoing commercial product that shifts the industry paradigm away from on-site time-intensive monitoring of oil wells and natural gas production facilities. Instead of waiting weeks for data to be received and interpreted, action can be taken much faster, reducing emissions, and lowering costs. Abaco’s expertise in RF and FPGA design, innovative space-saving heatsink design, and longstanding relationship with the academic institution led to selection of the company’s FMC104 and FMC108 FPGA mezzanine cards for this system.

Both the FMC104 four-channel FPGA mezzanine card and the FMC108 eight-channel FPGA mezzanine card are fully compliant with the VITA 57.1-2008 standard. These cards allow for flexible sampling frequency control, analog input gain, and offset correction through serial communication with a carrier card. Equipped with power supply and temperature monitoring, they offer several power-down modes to switch off unused functions. Used in this application as digitizers, these cards bring proven technologies capable of low-cost continuous monitoring for fast methane leak detection and repair. Their inventive heat dissipation design allowed for a less constrained environment and decreased overall costs by eliminating the need for additional heatsinks.

@AbacoSys @AMETEKInc #PAuto #Oil

Processing signals.

Pentek has announced the Model 7070 PCIe FMC carrier with a Virtex-7 FPGA. As a stand-alone signal processing board, it provides an ideal development and deployment platform for demanding DSP applications. 

How can the technology be utilised:

The 7070 has many useful capabilities. The optical transceivers provide a direct pipeline to the FPGA for very high bandwidth links to remote sensors or systems. The powerful Virtex-7 handles the most challenging DSP tasks, and installing an FMC transforms the 7070 into a complete I/O subsystem. Combined with any of Pentek’s FMCs, it creates a complete radar and software radio solution.

Model 7070 design features:

The Flexor Model 7070 features a high pin-count VITA 57.1 FMC site, 4 GB of DDR3 SDRAM, PCI Express (Gen. 1, 2 and 3) interface up to x8, optional 12x user-configurable gigabit serial I/O and optional LVDS connections to the FPGA for custom I/O.  The Flexor Model 7070 delivers new levels of I/O performance through the built-in gigabit serial interface with optional optical transceivers, making 12 full duplex optical lanes available to an MTP connector. With the installation of a serial protocol in the FPGA, this interface enables a high bandwidth connection between 7070s mounted within the same chassis or over extended distances between chassis.

Radio platforms

Ettus Research releases software defined radio platforms featuring Kintex-7 FPGA

Ettus Research part of National Instruments, has introduced the USRP X300 and USRP X310 high-performance, modular software defined radio (SDR) platforms. Both platforms combine two RF transceivers covering DC–6 GHz with up to 12 0 MHz bandwidth and a large user-programmable Kintex-7 FPGA. The USRP X300 and USRP X310 both feature multiple high-speed interface options, including PCI Express, dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet and dual 1 Gigabit Ethernet and is available in in a convenient desktop or rack-mountable half-wide 1U form factor. The USRP Hardware Driver™ (UHD) architecture, common to all NI USRP™ (Universal Software Radio Peripheral) devices, provides a comprehensive, easy-to-use interface.

Developers can programmatically control the USRP with the UHD C++ API, or choose from a wide selection of third-party tools and software such as GNU Radio. The USRP X300 and USRP X310 use a flexible software ecosystem to deliver cost-effective, high-performance SDR solutions that help wireless system designers quickly create simple prototypes, develop complex systems and accelerate their wireless research.

Both the USRP X300 and USRP X310 leverage the Kintex-7 family of FPGAs from Xilinx. The USRP X300 uses the XC7K325T, and the USRP X310 is based on the larger XC7K410T. Kintex-7 FPGAs integrate up to 1,540 DSP48 slices operating in parallel so USRP users can deploy custom or third-party signal processing algorithms onto each device. Users can process data in real time using their own DSP algorithms such as filters, modulators/demodulators and coders/decoders. They can also access and control the wide range of peripherals available on each USRP, including the RF front ends.

“The USRP X310 and USRP X300 significantly extend the USRP product family to a new level in capability and processing power,” said Matt Ettus, Founder and President of Ettus Research. “Offering unprecedented levels of real-time signal processing power and RF bandwidth, the USRP X310 and USRP X300 can now address applications such as next generation 5G wireless standard prototyping, multichannel spectrum scanning and analysis and even active radar prototyping and development.” 

USB plug and play!

National Instruments has four new R Series boards (USB-7855R, USB-7856R, USB-7855R OEM and USB-7856R OEM) with USB connectivity, which help engineers add FPGA technology to any PC-based system using one of the most widely adopted buses on the market. These products, based on the LabVIEW RIO architecture, are a result of the company’s continued investment in the R Series product family.

The LabVIEW RIO architecture is an integral part of the NI graphical system design platform. A modern approach to designing, prototyping and deploying embedded monitoring and control systems, graphical system design combines the open NI LabVIEW graphical programming environment with commercial off-the-shelf hardware to dramatically simplify development, which results in higher-quality designs with the ability to incorporate custom design.

“Using these new USB R Series devices, engineers and scientists can create highly customisable measurement and control systems using standard PC technology,” said Jamie Smith, Director of Embedded Systems Marketing at National Instruments. “They are ideal for high-performance medical, life science and semiconductor machines.”
Key features:
·        Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA: Implement tasks like custom timing and triggering, synchronisation, multirate sampling, high-speed control and onboard signal processing.
·        Improved I/O: Take advantage of analogue input and analoue output rates of up to 1 MHz for closed-loop control tasks, as well as digital I/O (DIO) rates of up to 80 MHz.
·        Selectable Logic Levels From 1.2 to 3.3 V: Adjust DIO levels to meet specific application requirements.
·        Selectable Gain for Analog Input Ranges: Get more resolution at lower voltage ranges.
·        OEM Options Available: Get the same power in a board-only form factor with the flexibility to create your own I/O interface. 

Product family grows to more

Extended I/O and FPGA access make PXI an option in advanced automated test and high-performance embedded systems that used to rely on custom solutions 

National Instruments has expanded the NI FlexRIO product family, built on FPGA-based reconfigurable I/O (RIO), to more than 20 modules. Six new adapter modules add I/O including digitiser, signal generation and IF and RF transceiver capabilities. Engineers can pair these NI FlexRIO adapter modules with user-programmable FPGAs to solve almost any test application, from real-time spectrum monitoring and RF modulation/demodulation to signal intelligence and RF communication protocol prototyping.

Because these modules benefit from the parallelism and dataflow programming of the NI LabVIEW RIO architecture, they can be easily targeted by engineers without VHDL or Verilog knowledge. The combination of NI FlexRIO, LabVIEW system design software and access to more than 600 NI PXI modular instruments gives engineers a commercial off-the-shelf solution that can be customised using FPGA technology.

“Our recent investments in user-programmable FPGA instrumentation, as illustrated not only through these new NI FlexRIO adapter modules but also with the NI PXIe-5645R vector signal transceiver, help demonstrate our empowering vision for redefining instrumentation,” said Charles Schroeder, Director of Test Systems at NI. “The NI FlexRIO platform, through the NI LabVIEW RIO architecture, enables customers to create some of the most powerful test, research and embedded systems.”

 Product Features

NI FlexRIO Adapter Module	Ideal Applications
NI 5771 – 8-bit, 3 GS/s digitiser	Pulsing, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), high-resolution edge detection
NI 5772 – 12-bit, 1.6 GS/s digitiser adapter module	Broadband IF acquisition, real-time spectrum monitoring
NI 5782 – IF transceiver	Custom modulation and demodulation, bit error rate testing, signal intelligence (SIGINT), real-time spectrum analysis
NI 5791 – RF transceiver
AT-1120 – 14-bit, 2 GS/s signal generator	RF communications protocol prototyping, RF record and playback, SIGINT, channel emulation
AT-1212 – 2-channel signal generator

Case Study

See how NI FlexRIO is being used to control a single atom

Beamforming and multichannel waveform generation

Pentek has released its highest-performing D/A converter module for RF and IF waveform playback, the Cobalt® Model 71670. The module delivers four independent analog outputs each through its own digital upconverter and 16-bit D/A with sampling rates to 1.25 GHz. An on-board Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA contains factory-installed IP that provides turnkey waveform playback functionality for output signal bandwidths up to 250 MHz. Users can also customize the module’s operation by implementing their own IP in the FPGA.

“With four channels capable of independent translation from baseband to IF frequency,” said Rodger Hosking, vice president of Pentek, “the Model 71670 makes a perfect complement to our Cobalt Models 71660 and 71661 four-channel A/D boards. For the first time, this important new addition to our Cobalt product line provides four channels of digital up conversion in a single module instead of four. This helps engineers save costs and greatly simplifies the design of synchronous beamforming radar and multichannel transceiver systems.”

Channel independence in the Model 71670 is achieved with two new DAC3484 D/A converters from Texas Instruments (TI), each providing two digital upconverters (DUC) and 16-bit D/A channels with up to 16x interpolation that can translate a quadrature (I+Q) signal to a user-selectable IF center frequency.

“We began working with Pentek on their new D/A boards shortly after the DAC3484 became available,” said Chuck Sanna, marketing manager for Texas Instruments’ High Speed Products business. “With the DAC3484, Pentek was able to dramatically increase board density and performance thanks to the device’s small package size and the industry’s lowest power consumption.”
Precision Timing Enables Large Synchronous Systems
The Model 71670’s internal clock generator supports a wide range of timing modes and operates from an on-board programmable VCXO or an external clock. A front-panel connector accepts a 5 or 10 MHz reference clock to phase lock the internal programmable VCXO. The module also accepts a direct D/A sample clock input that can be as high as 1.25 GHz.

To offer precision timing control in a multi-module design, Pentek has implemented its new µSync timing bus in the Model 71670. The bus uses CML (current model logic) signaling for highest precision and includes clock, sync/reset, and gate/trigger signals that keep the operations of multiple modules sample-synchronized. Two modules can use the bus in a master/slave relationship to achieve 8-channel synchronization. For higher channel counts, the Model 7192 Cobalt Synchronizer can drive numerous modules using a star configuration.

High-Performance I/O
The Model 71670 complies with the VITA 42.0 XMC interface specification, providing two gigabit serial connectors. The primary XMC connector supports x4 or x8 PCIe Gen 2 with multiple DMA controllers for efficient transfers to and from the module. The secondary connector supports two 4x or one 8x link with bit rates up to 3.125 GHz to support user-installed gigabit serial protocols such as Aurora, SRIO, or a secondary PCIe interface. An additional I/O option provides 20 LVDS differential pairs to the FPGA through the PMC P14 connector.

Built-in and Customizable Operation
Like all Cobalt family modules, the Model 71670 includes a Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA to implement internal data flow. The FPGA’s factory-configured functions include a sophisticated Waveform Playback IP module that includes four linked list DMA controllers to support waveform generation from tables in either on-board or host memory. As many as 64 individual link entries are available for each channel and can be chained together to create complex waveforms with a minimum of programming.

Pentek also provides users with its GateFlow software development tool for implementing their own IP in the FPGA. The tool includes source code for the factory-implemented configuration as well as other system IP, allowing users to customize the module’s default operation as well as incorporate their own proprietary IP. Customers can also choose the size of the FPGA on their module, ensuring they will have adequate capacity for implementing the functionality they desire.

Support radio module

Pentek has a new addition to the popular Cobalt^® family of Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA boards, the Model 71662 four channel, 200 MHz, 16-bit data acquisition board with built-in digital down converters (DDCs). With an input bandwidth from 300 kHz to 700 MHz, the board is suitable for direct connection to IF or RF ports of communications, unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) and radar systems for real-time DSP tasks such as demodulation and decoding. Together with Pentek’s ReadyFlow board support package, with its built-in command line interface and signal viewer, the Model 71662 forms a complete solution for data acquisition, processing and analysis.

Pentek software radio is available in PCIe, VPX, & cPCI
formats as well as conduction-cooled versions

“With 32 channels of multiband DDC, the Model 71662 represents the highest channel count product in our Cobalt family. This is perfect for communication applications where a multitude of channels need to be intercepted and received in parallel,” said Rodger Hosking, vice president of Pentek. “In addition to the on-board resources, Pentek provides the components that enable customers to easily build, customize and integrate their own system application. GateFlow enables custom FPGA IP (intellectual property) development, and the ReadyFlow board support libraries and command line interface allow engineers to quickly get up and running.”

Built-in Acquisition IP

The 71662 provides four transformer-isolated input channels that each supply a Texas Instruments ADS5485 16-bit, 200 MHz ADC. The ADC outputs pass to an input multiplexer that supports four Acquisition IP modules factory-installed in the Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA. Each IP module can receive data from any of the four ADCs, or from a test signal generator, providing highly flexible input and antenna assignments.

Four 512 MB DDR3 SDRAM memory banks, one for each IP module, can buffer data in a FIFO mode or store data in a transient capture mode. All memory banks have DMA engines for streaming data at up to 1600 MB/second through the PCIe interface to off-board storage or additional processing. These linked-list engines offer a unique acquisition Gate Driven mode in which the gate duration determines the transfer length, eliminating the need for pre-set transfer lengths. To simplify post-acquisition analysis of multi-channel data, the DMA engines can automatically construct meta-data packets that contain information such as channel ID, a sample-accurate time stamp and data length.

Integrated Digital Downconverter Cores

Also contained within each of the four Acquisition IP modules is an 8-channel digital downconverter bank. Each DDC bank has its own decimation setting from 16 to 8192, providing a wide range of independent output signal bandwidths. The decimation FIR filter within each bank accepts a unique set of 18-bit user-supplied coefficients for custom channel shaping. Each of the eight DDC channels within a bank can have its own 32-bit tuning-frequency setting and delivers a complex output stream consisting of 24-bit I and 24-bit Q samples.

“The combination of input channel selection, independent decimation controls, and channel bandwidth controls allows quick configuration of the Model 71662 for a wide variety of applications,” said Bob Sgandurra, product manager of Pentek. “In communications monitoring, for instance, the board can be set to continuously examine wide spectral bands for signals of interest on some channels, and use other channels to zoom in on a detected signal for a detailed narrowband view. The 71662’s internal timing bus further expands the module’s applicability by supporting the synchronization of multiple modules for even wider channel counts.”

FPGA Resources Available

The installed Acquisition IP modules in the 71662’s on-board Virtex-6 FPGA allows users to implement their own logic designs. A variety of FPGA sizes are available for the 71662 so that users can obtain as much, or as little, capacity as they need. The SXT devices, for instance, offer up to 2016 DSP slices for applications such as real-time signal demodulation, decoding and forwarding by an UAV monitoring communications in hostile areas. For applications with less-demanding requirements, the lower-cost LXT series is available.

To support custom design in the 71662, Pentek offers the ReadyFlow board support package and the GateFlow FPGA Design Kit. ReadyFlow provides features such as turnkey signal analysis software and a command line interface for controlling the module’s operation in an application program. GateFlow includes all of the board's factory-installed IP as documented source code, as well as a library of other functions so that developers can integrate their own IP with Pentek’s. All data and control paths are accessible within the FPGA.

Design user-configurable FPGA-based I/O

National Instruments has introduced four new adapter modules for its NI FlexRIO product family, which provides FPGA-based reconfigurable I/O (RIO) for PXI systems, using the LabVIEW FPGA Module software. The user-configurable NI FlexRIO product family takes advantage of industry-leading PXI hardware and software integration to give engineers a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution that is specifically designed to more easily implement field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology for advanced automated test and measurement systems. NI FlexRIO solutions combine two distinct hardware components, a programmable PXI or PXI Express-based FPGA module and an I/O adapter module. The four new NI FlexRIO adapter modules are ideal for real-time measurements, nondestructive test (NDT) and ultrasound applications, communications systems and scientific research.

“Using NI FlexRIO, we designed an advanced ultrasound instrument in less than three months,” said Dave Lines, chief engineer at Diagnostic Sonar, a leading developer of ultrasonic systems for industrial and medical applications. “Because of the tight integration of NI FlexRIO hardware and LabVIEW FPGA software, our entire development process, including architecture specification, FPGA coding and real-time 3D display creation, was significantly shortened, and we were able to create an instrument that was much more customizable and scalable compared to existing systems.”
The new NI FlexRIO adapter modules reflect the continued investment of National Instruments in FPGA-based RIO and expand the company’s selection of PXI modular instrumentation with user-configurable FPGAs. Designed for test and measurement applications that require real-time performance and hardware signal processing, the new modules include the following unique capabilities:

-- NI 5761: four-channel, 14-bit, 250 MS/s broadband high-performance digitizer adapter module designed to meet a wide range of signal processing application needs including communications system design, intermediate frequency (IF) acquisition, multiple input, multiple output (MIMO), radar and scientific research
-- NI 5751: 16-channel, 50 MS/s, 14-bit digitizer adapter module for test and measurement in areas such as experimental physics, NDT and medical imaging
-- NI 5752: 32-channel, 50 MS/s, 12-bit digitizer adapter module optimized for NDT and ultrasound applications; includes AC-coupled differential inputs with integrated VGAs and time-varying gain curves, as well as 16 digital outputs for pulser stimulus
-- NI 6583: 32 single-ended and 16 LVDS/mLVDS channels, digital adapter module with data rates up to 300 Mbit/s for test and communication requiring mixed digital logic

Engineers can control and reconfigure the FPGA on the NI FlexRIO host module using the LabVIEW FPGA software. LabVIEW FPGA is distinctly suited for user-configurable FPGA programming because it clearly represents parallelism and dataflow programming, making it easier and more productive for engineers to target FPGAs without VHDL or Verilog knowledge.

The latest version of LabVIEW FPGA incorporates enhancements that specifically address the increasing demands of advanced test systems. It includes improved integration with existing and off-the-shelf IP including direct compatibility with Xilinx IP blocks such as filters, fast Fourier transforms (FFTs), memories and first-in-first-out memory buffers (FIFOs). Better simulation capabilities make LabVIEW FPGA debugging and verification faster and more accurate with an IP behavioral simulation engine and tool integration with Mentor Graphics ModelSim. LabVIEW FPGA also draws on the support of LabVIEW FPGA IPNet, an online resource that helps engineers browse, download and share the latest IP for FPGA designs.

In addition to seamless integration with LabVIEW, the new adapter modules join a broad portfolio of more than 400 NI PXI software-defined hardware products for automated test. Engineers can combine all NI FlexRIO products with the more than 1,500 PXI instruments from NI and more than 50 other vendors to address the requirements of practically any test application.

High resolution dual-channel ADC FMC Card

Designed for use in demanding DSP applications like SIGNIT, ECM and Radar Applications

Mistral Solutions has announced the availability of the highest resolution FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC/VITA 57) module from Curtiss Wright, the new ADC511, a 400MS/s 14-bit, dual channel ADC card

The ADC511 uses two Texas Instruments ADS5474 analog to digital converters. Each device supports a sampling rate up to 400MSPS with 14-bit resolution. Available in both air-cooled and conduction-cooled rugged versions, the ADC511 is aimed at DSP applications such as Signal Intelligence (SIGINT), Electronic Counter Measures (ECM), and Radar.

The ADC511 speeds and simplifies the integration of FPGAs into embedded system design by providing high bandwidth I/O direct to the host card´s FPGAs. It eliminates data bottlenecks to increase DSP subsystem performance by routing high-speed ADC I/O directly to the host board’s FPGAs via the FMC connector.

The ADC511 can be fitted to FMC hosts like Curtiss-Wright’s FPE320, FPE650 and HPE720. The combination of the ADC511 with a suitable host provides developers with a high quality analog I/O and processing solution in a single VPX/VPX-REDI slot.