Flexible 4 Channel Analog In/Out
Single-Chip Adaptable Platform
200 Gb/s Digital I/O
Multi-channel Direct RF Transceiver
The BittWare RFX-8440L card is an L-band digital direct sampling transceiver featuring the third generation AMD Zynq® UltraScale+™ RFSoC. This innovative solution uses the RFSoC’s ADC for L-band direct sampling, displacing legacy down conversion approaches at and below L-Band, and displacing external amplification above L-Band.
The RFX-8440L was designed as a standalone card that just happens to be in PCIe form factor. Installing the card in a ruggedized chassis would allow you to mount the RFX-8440L card near the antenna to transform antenna data into packets. Since the RFX-8440L gets all of its power via the external power connector and can be communicated with via an on-board RJ45 connector, it does not need a PCIe slot. The RFX-8440L also works in traditional server PCIe slots.
L-band Direct Sampling
Tapping three decades of experience in designing sensor processing cards, BittWare’s analog front-end features variable gain input down to -64 dBm. This innovative solution uses the RFSoC’s ADC for L-band direct sampling, displacing legacy down conversion approaches.
Do More in the Digital Domain
At the center of the RFX-8440L is the latest generation single-chip RFSoC from Xilinx, the Zynq ZU43. This device is designed to bring together multi-channel data conversion and processing on a single chip.
“Now with complete coverage of sub-6GHz spectrum bands available as a readily-deployable PCIe card from BittWare, customers are able to gain a competitive advantage by accelerating the design and development of their next-gen wireless systems today.”David BrubakerSenior product line manager, Wired and Wireless Group, Xilinx
RFX-8440L PCIe card, shown with dual QSFP28 connectors. The RFX-8440L is designed to work in a host system or standalone.
Analogue Front End
Transmit Side Block Diagram
Just need Data Acquisition?
Check out our RFX-8440A variant.
The RFX-8440 is available in two variants: the RFX-8440L and the RFX-8440A. RFX-8440L is a direct RF transceiver that can connect directly to an L-Band antenna to process signals. RFX-8440A is a data acquisition card that seamlessly crosses between analog and digital at up to S-Band rates.
RFSoC
Flexible 4 Channel
Analog In/Out
With features like variable gain down to -64 dBm (input), we’ve designed the critical analog circuitry to match the performance needs for a clean signal to/from the RFSoC’s 14-bit interfaces. Our heritage in high-performance analog PCB design spans three decades as a core strength for BittWare.
- Four ADC channels, 14-bit, 5.0GSPS
- Four DAC channels, 14-bit, 9.7GSPS
- Variable gain input: -64 to +38 dB
- External reference and triggers
- Programmable clocks
Powered by Third-Generation Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC
At the heart of RFX-8440/RFX-8441 is the Zynq ZU43 RFSoC: a powerful single-chip adaptable radio platform providing up to 6 GHz of direct RF sampling. With a multi-element processing system: FPGA, real-time dual-core ARM and a second quad-core ARM, this RFSoC has what it takes to acquire, process and act on RF signals.
- Industry’s only adaptable single-chip radio platform
- Move RF design to the digital domain
- Programmable logic for diverse requirements and emerging standards
- Lower power by eliminating JESD204 interfaces
- Reduce PCB area vs. discrete solutions
- Future-proof comprehensive solution
- Full sub-6GHz support with extended millimeter wave interfacing and multi-band support
Tap a slide for more details on the RFSoC from Xilinx:
Slide content copyright Xilinx
RFX 8440L: Optional Card Configuration with Dual QSFP28s
DIGITAL I/O
Expansion Options With up to 200 Gb/s Bandwidth
With 200 Gbps of digital I/O available on the FPGA side of the RFSoC, the card supports twice the bandwidth of RFSoC implementations that depend upon PCIe for data transfer. This I/O is available through two QSFP28 cages. Customers have implemented transports using Aurora, Ethernet MAC frames, and UDP.
- 2× front panel QSFP28s (uses internal OCuLink cable)
- Xilinx Hard IP support for dual 100GbE
- Custom lightweight protocols to connect to other FPGA cards
- Customized Molex connectors/cables as required for your application
- Additional I/O ports include RJ45 (1GbE) and USB 3.0
Included IP
BittWare RFX cards ship with an application that converts between analog data and timestamped, VITA-49.2 packets. It works in both ADC and DAC directions. The application also transfers raw data between the RFSoC and the ARM memory or eMMC. The RFSoC’s ARM Processing System runs Linux and acts as a control plane. More specifically, BittWare has integrated card management functions through customized Linux drivers. BittWare has also ported AMD’s RF Tool application, a socket library that configures an RFSoC chip. Above both Linux and RF Tool, BittWare provides its own RFUtils commands and examples. RFUtils can generate synthetic waveforms as well as load and stream waveforms from files. All of this is fully supported by BittWare and we provide source code.
BittWare also supplies an unsupported port of AMD’s RF Analyzer which we use to help characterize our cards.
Block Diagram, Data Sheet and Specifications
Board Specifications
FPGA
- Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC
- XCZU43 in an E1156 package
- Core speed grade -2
- Contact BittWare for other FPGA options
Analog
- L-Band 1GHz – 2GHz: Includes several signal conditioning components including variable gain
- 4 x 5 GSPS 14-bit ADCs: -64 to +38 dB
- 4 x 9.7 GSPS 14-bit DACs: 32 dB of output power control inside the FPGA
- Programmable clocks
- External reference and triggers
- SSMC style connectors
On-board flash
- Flash memory for booting FPGA
- Flash memory for ARM bootloader and OS image
External memory
- 16GB DDR4 processing system (ARM) memory with ECC
- 10GB DDR4 programmable logic memory no ECCC
RFX-8440 External digital interfaces
- Processing system
- PCIe Gen2 x1
- RJ45 Ethernet
- USB UART
- USB 3.0
- Programmable logic
- Up to 200 Gb/s via 2x front panel QSFP28s:
- Xilinx Hard IP support for dual 100GbE
Cooling
- Standard: double-width passive heatsink
Electrical
- On-board power derived from 6-pin AUX connector or optionally from 12V PCIe slot connection
- Power dissipation is application dependent
- Typical max power consumption 50W
Environmental
- Operating temperature: 5°C to 35°C
Quality
- Manufactured to ISO9001:2015 IPC-A-610-Class III
- RoHS compliant
- CE, FCC, UKCA & ICES approvals
Form factor
- 3/4-length, standard-height PCIe dual-slot card (x16 mechanical)
- Supports standalone operation
- RFX-8440L can be ordered as a TeraBox™ integrated server platform
Development Tools
FPGA development
- BittWare provides a basic data capture and replay example utilizing the major interfaces of the product. Xilinx Vivado development tools are fully supported for development of custom designs.
Deliverables
- RFX-8440L Analog Data Acquisition Card
- Data capture and relay example – Full source code
- 1-year hardware warranty
Interested in Pricing or More Information?
Our technical sales team is ready to provide availability and configuration information, or answer your technical questions.
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