The RTS 2701 recording and playback system from Pentek, which includes a multiband transceiver, can be used as a laboratory test instrument, a standalone remote data acquisition system, or a dedicated record/playback subsystem for deployed applications. It incorporates enhanced software features as well as a 7641-420 software-defined radio module.

This dual-channel transceiver comes in a standard 19-in. rack-mount server chassis that can be placed in a rack or used on a desktop. As a Windows XP workstation, it allows customers to run their own applications plus a range of third-party software for signal analysis and post-processing. By simply plugging in a monitor, mouse, and keyboard, users have a ready-to-use PC-based instrument.

Designed to digitize analog signals from communications and radar systems, the RTS 2701delivers data to high-speed disk arrays at speeds up to 500 Mbytes/s. Once captured, the data can be post-processed or archived. Recorded signals can be played back through digital-to-analog converters (DACs), reproducing real-time analog signals while preserving the original bandwidth.

The RTS 2701 includes Pentek’s Model 7641-420 multiband transceiver, which comprises wideband and narrowband digital downconverters that translate analog IF signals to analog IF frequencies. They deliver a diverse set of bandwidths and sampling rates, with bandwidths as low as 8 kHz fro voice bands all the way up to 60 MHz for wideband radar.

Input signals can be centered at IF frequencies as high as 300 MHz, so the RTS 2701 can handle signals that are 40 MHz wide at 140 MHz as easily as signals that are 10 kHz wide at 21.4 MHz. New software features a highly modular architecture that enables Pentek to efficiently accommodate specific customer needs for channel count, storage capacity, recording rates, and signal frequencies and bandwidths.

The system includes to 125-MHz analog-to-digital converters, each generating data samples at 250 Mbytes/s. To match this rate, the system can record or play back both channels continuously in real time at an aggregate sustained rate of 500 Mbytes/s. The standard version includes 5 Tbytes of disk storage in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) array. The system can be configured for RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, and 50.

Pentek’s SystemFlow software includes client and server packages. The client software includes an interactive GUI control panel for the virtual instrument, plus an oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer for viewing signals in the time and frequency domains both before and after recording.

The server software incorporates all of the real-time services for recording and playback, including configuring the hardware and managing all data transfers to and from the disks. All files recorded by the RTS 2701 are stored as Windows NT file system (NTFS) files, a native format that is portable across multiple operating systems.

Recorded files are instantaneously readable by other applications, eliminating the time-consuming file translation processing required by competing systems that record using a proprietary format. The same compatibility benefit applies to files generated by a user application for playback. Each recorded file includes a header containing a time stamp and recording parameters with bandwidth, center frequency, sampling rate and channel identification.

The SystemFlow server software supports the RTS 2701’s application programming interface (API). Pentek provides a well-documented set of commands that allows the RTS 2701 to be controlled over Ethernet.

The RTS 2701 can be installed in a remote location such as a monitoring facility or an airborne or shipborne equipment bay. By connecting it to a client-host computer over Ethernet or even over the Internet, API command and status messages can control and monitor the real-time record and playback activities within the server.

Perhaps a customer is developing an advanced signal processing system, but needs to attach a recording I/O facility to the larger system. Again, the larger system can use the API to control the RTS 2701.

The RTS 2701 recording and playback system costs $44,995, with delivery in 10 to 12 weeks ARO.