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U.S. Army Selects Spectrum's SDR-4000 for Software Defined Radio Research
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The Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate of the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and
Engineering Center (CERDEC) has selected Spectrum's
flexComm™ SDR-4000
for software defined radio research and development.
The SDR-4000 is a rugged 3U CompactPCI software defined radio platform that is comprised of two main hardware
components: the PRO-4600 modem processing engine and the XMC-3321 dual transceiver input/output mezzanine module.
RapidIO provides a high bandwidth interconnect fabric between these cards, as well as the input/output functionality to
ensure the efficient use of the processing resources.
For more information, read the
press release,
SDR-4000 datasheet (pdf) or contact
Spectrum Sales.
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NASA Selects Spectrum's SDR-4000 for Development and Demonstration of Future Space-based Communications
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center will use Spectrum's
flexComm™ SDR-4000 software defined radio platform to develop, integrate and demonstrate an
implementation of the Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) Architecture software on a reconfigurable,
multi-function communications platform. The demonstration is scheduled for 2007.
The main objectives of the STRS program are to enable advanced operations and reduce mission costs. The STRS
Architecture strives to support existing communications needs and capabilities while providing a path to more
advanced network connectivity that facilitates scalable, modular, reconfigurable, and upgradeable functionality and
features. The STRS plans to achieve this objective by utilizing a lightweight middleware software application, similar
to the SCA used in the Joint Tactical Radio System Program (JTRS), but optimized for space-based applications.
For more information, read the
press release, download the
SDR-4000 datasheet (pdf) or contact
Spectrum Sales.
View our other software defined radio solutions at
www.spectrumsignal.com/products.
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Reading Break: Does the Wireless Industry Really Need All of These Standards?
]
As a continuing column in the IEEE Communciations Magazine Quarterly Radio Supplement,
Spectrum's Chief Technology Officer Lee Pucker explores this question in the December issue.
There is an ongoing proliferation of standards impacting the development of wireless technology and products.
This proliferation includes air interface and protocol standards, such as those developed by the European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the Telecommunications Institute of America
(TIA), and the IEEE 802 Committee, as well as a whole host of standards and specifications related to
the architecture of a radio platform including hardware interfaces, software infrastructure, and
application development. Looking at the large collection of existing and emerging standards supporting
the wireless systems that are available on the market, one has to wonder: "Does the wireless
community really need all of these standards?"
Download the complete
article (pdf).
Access Spectrum's library of published articles at
www.spectrumsignal.com/publications.
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Maximing Waveform Portability in a Radio Architecture Through a Common Hardware Abstraction Layer Model
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Continue your reading break with another not-to-be missed article by Lee Pucker published earlier this year:
In previous columns, I have discussed the trade-offs associated with choosing both the signal processing devices that are used in
a radio platform and the architectural model for supporting those devices. In this column I thought I would expand on this
theme and explore elements of the software operating environment associated with the radio platform that are necessary to
support the overall radio requirements. More specifically, I will explore the requirements on the radio’s software infrastructure
necessary to support the portability of waveform code from radio to radio. A waveform application, for these purposes, will
be defined as an assembly of software and firmware components that are deployed on the radio hardware to implement the
entire set of radio functions, from the user input to the RF output and vice versa. Components, in this context, encapsulate
some functionality supporting the waveform, with well defined interfaces or ports into and out of that functionality. Examples
of such components can include ActiveX controls, JavaBeans, common object request broker architecture (CORBA)
components, field programmable gate array (FPGA) IP cores, and ExpressDSP™ algorithms. In this context component
artifacts include the deployable software and firmware (including HDL code as appropriate) necessary to realize the component’s
functionality on the target radio platform.
Download the complete
article (pdf)
or visit www.spectrumsignal.com/publications
to read more from the Radio Communication series of articles.
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