| Ultra-Wideband Recording Stretches to Keep Up With Digitizers |
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| Nov 01 2007 | |
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advertisement: Systems designers are always pressing for faster and faster real-time performance, and data acquisition technology continues to evolve to meet that need. Currently available high-performance digitizers perform in the range of 2 to 5 GS/sec, and some new instruments are featuring 7 GS/sec digitizers for transient capture. Often, advances in one area of technology put pressure on others, and in this case these faster digitizers have created a corresponding need for faster data recording to capture the digitized results in real-time. Streaming data recorders are currently capable of data rates in the range of 720 MB/sec, which is quite fast but still means a single recorder is incapable of recording all the data from one of these advanced digitizers. With some architectural insight and utilization of advances in serial FPDP interfaces, recording engines, switching, and storage arrays, however, an ultrawideband streaming data recorder can be created to keep up with these advanced digitizers.Faster Serial FPDP The first step in creating an ultrawideband recorder is to get data off the digitizer, calling for a fast, scalable interface. Serial Front Panel Data Port (FPDP, ANSI/VITA 17.1) has become a de-facto standard in sensor signal processing applications, for two reasons: it is fast, and it simplifies cabling and allows for longer cable lengths than parallel connections. |
