Data conversion instruments manufacturer Acqiris has expanded its partnership with signal processing specialist RF Engines Ltd (RFEL) to incorporate firmware for real-time signal processing into high-speed digitizer and analyzer platforms. The ongoing partnership program and the development of the Acqiris Firmware Development Kit (FDK) allows customers to develop their own functions, or to have Acqiris develop custom real-time processing functions.

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With added FPGA technology, such as the Virtex II Pro 70, Acqiris digitizer products allow real-time signal processing with front-end bandwidths of 1 GHz and sample rates of up to 2 Gsample/s. This FPGA is capable of executing multiplications in less than 5 ns and offers more than 74,448 logic cells, up to 5.9 Mbits of on-chip RAM, and 328 dedicated 18-bit x 18-bit multipliers with 36-bit results. Current off-the-shelf firmware includes averaging, and ping-pong memory functions, which are suitable for applications such as radar, communications systems, and Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (TOF-MS).

Previously, the two have partnered to successfully develop a complex pulse frequency measurement core for Acqiris' CompactPCI analyzer platforms, based on the Xilinx Virtex II Pro FPGA unit (XC2VP70). This project is a blend of RFEL's skills in high-performance channelization designs, delivered in a relatively short timescale, and Acqiris' instrumentation design capabilities to provide high-speed data capture and analysis, stated the partners.