Modular development platform tuned for software defined radios

The SMT8096, a platform for developing software defined radio (SDR) equipment, is said to facilitate rapid prototyping of wireless base stations, military and public safety radios, and high-speed data-acquisition systems.

Announced by both Sundance and Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) at the 2005 SDR Technical Conference and Product Exposition, the SMT8096 draws on TI's TMS320C6416T fixed-point DSP, which offers a 1GHz clock frequency and 64-bit external data bus, for high-performance data preprocessing. The DSP's programmability and compatibility with several hardware and software standards accounts in part for the platform's flexibility. The DSP also gets credit for the platform's speed and accuracy, according to TI.

Modularity is also central to the platform's flexibility. For example, the SMT8096 includes a data-acquisition modulethe SMT350that carries twin TI ADS5500 14-bit, 125MS/s ADCs, a Xilinx FPGA, and a TI DAC5686 dual 16-bit, 500MS/s DAC, which offers dual-channel, single-sideband, and quadrature modulation modes.

Also, a PCI carrier on the platform gives access to TI modules over a 33MHz, 32-bit-data PCI bus or, for more demanding applications, a 66MHz, 64-bit bus.

On the software side, the platform's JTAG controller opens the door to TI's Code Composer Studio integrated development environment and 3L Diamond multiprocessor OS development tools. To ease the coding task, the platform also works with The MathWorks' Simulink and is compatible with Windows, QNX and Linux environments.

The SMT8096 is available for $8,395 each in single quantities. Delivery takes two to four weeks after receipt of an order.

- Gil Bassak

eeProductCenter