Demonstrating its commitment to offer ruggedized products for applications in extreme environments, Pentek, Inc. has released a new version of its model 7131 16-channel multiband digital receiver PMC (PCI mezzanine card) module. The 7131-702 features two 14-bit 105 MHz ADCs and four quad-digital receivers. This board also couples the Virtex-II FPGA technology with these channelized software radio functions, providing more than two million gates available for user customization. Most importantly, the module achieves Pentek's highest level of convection-cooled ruggedization, joining the 6821, 6822 and 7140 PMC and VME boards as part of Pentek's growing family of ruggedized board products.

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The model 7131-702 targets software radio applications including synchronous data communications, direction-finding, wireless telecom, satellite communications, wireless LAN and high-frequency sonar. The rugged 7131 is suited for stressful environments such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other combat applications. It has an operating temperature range of -20ºC to 65ºC and a storage range of -40ºC to 100ºC. It is qualified for 20 g shock, 2 g sine vibration and 0.04 g²/Hz random vibration. A conformal coating is also available that extends operating range to 100% relative humidity and protects the board from environmental contaminants.

The module is equipped with either XC2V1000 or XC2V3000 FPGA devices from the Xilinx Virtex-II family, offering logic densities of one or three million gates, respectively. The FPGA is factory-configured to perform standard modes of data packing, formatting and channel selection. An optional FPGA developer's kit is available for custom applications to take advantage of the 70% unused resources within the optional XC2V3000 FPGA. Also supported are Pentek's GateFlow IP cores, such as pulse compression algorithms and FFTs, so customers can take immediate advantage of FPGA technology.

The model 7131-702 starts at $7495 with availability at eight to ten weeks ARO. ReadyFlow board-support packages are available to speed development tasks, and both Linux and Windows drivers are available to allow high-level programming on workstations. Driver source code is included, allowing users to modify software functionality.