Application Engineering

Spectrum’s highly qualified Application Engineering Services (AES) team are experts in Software Defined Radio application and waveform development for systems supporting Software Communications Architecture (SCA). Building on a solid resume of experience working for the U.S. government and its prime contractors, AES will speed the development of software defined radio applications by customizing off-the-shelf hardware, software and firmware to customer specifications. AES can assist your team with algorithm development, integration and implementation to help reduce project schedules, mitigate development risk and reduce the resource burden for non-core activities.

For more information, download the datasheets (pdf):

• Application Engineering Services
• RF Receiver/Transceiver Integration Services

We maintain a facility in Columbia, MD and have the ability to work on ITAR and DoD-controlled projects. Spectrum’s AES team partners with your internal application development engineers to augment your development resources and support you in the following areas:

JTRS Software Communications Architecture

If your application requires the SCA, Spectrum can provide off-the-shelf support, as well as customization of this environment to application specification. Examples include:

• Waveform Development
• Algorithm Encapsulation
• Logical Device Encapsulation: RF or custom interface
• Independent Verification and Validation platform development support

Wireless System Design

Our engineers are skilled at designing custom single and multi-channel wireless solutions and can support all phases of wireless systems design including:

• Requirements analysis
• System architecture definition including RF and post processing architectures
• Application mapping into a heterogeneous architecture (FPGA, DSP, PowerPC)
• Design and manufacture of custom interface hardware components
• Integration of 3rd party components such as
  • RF receivers and transmitters (digital and analog interfaces)
  • PMC modules (application specific interface needs)
  • Custom digital interfaces
• Protocol development
• Capacity analysis for multiple access
• System simulation

Algorithm Development

Every engineer has years of DSP algorithm experience, allowing us to provide algorithms and optimized functions in VHDL, ANSI/C or a combination thereof in areas such as:

Real-Time Application Development

Spectrum’s expertise includes:

• Optimized C and assembly for TMS320C6000, PowerPC and SHARC® processors
• DSP-based real time operation systems including TI’s DSP BIOS
• Real time operation systems including VxWorks®, Real Time Linux, and QNX
• Dataflow, synchronization and processing between heterogeneous processing elements and data source/sinks: FPGA/DSP/PowerPC

User Interface/Command and Control Development

A custom interface for any application is available from one of our engineers. Examples include:

• System access libraries
• Network interfaces including TCP/IP and CORBA
• JAVA, Windows® and X-Windows based graphical user interfaces