Pentek Releases Software Radio Development Platform Compliance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:


Software Defined Radio Technical Conference

Hyatt Regency, Garden Grove

November 14-18, 2005



Pentek Releases Complete Software Radio Development Platform with SCA
Compliance



·        System includes Pentek’s hardware, Communications Research

Centre SCARI development suite and more.

·        Platform enables application development for interoperability,
communication among military forces, civilian emergency centers and law
enforcement agencies.

·        Low-Cost PCI, Linux solution makes Joint Tactical Radio System
development attainable.



GARDEN GROVE, CA–November 14, 2005–Pentek, Inc., the industry pioneer of
VME board-level technology, today released a development platform
containing all hardware and tools required for software-defined radio
development compliant with the Software Communication Architecture (SCA)
mandated for all future U.S. military radios. The Pentek SCA 2510
hardware platform consists of a Pentek 7640 software radio transceiver
PCI card installed in a PC workstation. The computer is loaded with the
Linux operating system, development tools and the SCARI++ SCA core
framework from Communications Research Centre (CRC) Canada. The hardware
and software are fully integrated to ease development.  The PCI card
comes pre-configured with drivers and libraries so developers can
immediately begin their software-defined radio projects.



“Creating a reconfigurable radio that’s adaptable to many radio
standards—without the need to replace hardware—is what JTRS is all
about,” says Pentek vice president Rodger Hosking. ”The SCA2510
Development System with fully-integrated SCA tools and core framework
already in place helps JTRS hardware and software engineers reach that
goal. We married a high-performance PCI transceiver card and an
extensive set of supporting software libraries to the industry’s most
comprehensive suite of SCA development tools. The end result is a
powerful, cost-effective PC-based system that extends the reach of JTRS
software radio development to companies that might not have been able to
afford it before.“



“SCA technology is a key enabler to facilitate communications
interoperability among military, police and rescue-relief teams,” says
Claude Bélisle, acting vice-president of Satellite Communications and
Radio Propagation Research at CRC. “We are pleased to be working with
industry leaders such as Pentek in the development of SDR products.”



Inside the SCA 2510

The Model 7640 Dual Channel Transceiver PCI board digitizes HF or IF
input signals using a pair of 14-bit, 105 MHz A/D converters and
generates output signals with two 16-bit, 500 MHz D/A converters. The
7640 is also equipped with a Virtex-II Pro VP50 FPGA that serves as a
control and status engine with data and programming interfaces to each
of the many onboard resources, including a four-channel digital
downconverter, a digital upconverter and an extremely versatile clocking
and synchronization system. The FPGA is supported with a total of 512 MB
DDR SDRAM for built-in buffering functions, including data capture and
delay. A 64-bit 66 MHz PCI interface includes a high-performance
nine-channel DMA controller to boost PCI bus transfer speeds.



The SCA 2510 software development environment is based on the SCARI++
SCA Core Framework, Component Development Library and Software Defined
Radio (SDR) Development Toolset. This toolset is integrated with
Pentek’s SCA-compatible board support package for a complete development
solution ready for radio and waveform designers.



FPGA Development Tools

Pentek offers the GateFlow FPGA Design Kit, a package that includes
design information, software files and utilities for extending the base
functionality of the Virtex-II Pro FPGA on the Model 7640.



Lower Cost, Full Support

Compared to proprietary development platforms, the use of a PC-based
hardware platform, Linux operating system and CRC’s SCA software greatly
reduces the cost of entry for potential developers. The PC workstation
and Pentek 7640 PCI rival the performance of larger multi-board system
alternatives while reducing hardware costs. Nevertheless, since the
Model 7640 architecture is identical to the 7140 PMC/XMC module, all
development efforts can easily be scaled to large, multi-channel VME and
cPCI systems ranging from commercial through conduction-cooled
environments.



Support for the development platform also helps reduce the cost of entry
by offering complete training and maintenance. Pentek provides
first-line support for the hardware platform and hardware-software
integration issues. CRC will train customers on the SCA and development
tools and will provide ongoing upgrades and tool maintenance.



Price and Availability

Pentek’s SCA 2510 Development Platform starts at $85,000 for all
hardware and software tools for the first development seat. Discounts
are available for additional seats.  Product availability is
approximately 12 weeks ARO.



The development platform is being demonstrated this week at the Software
Defined Radio Forum’s Technical Conference, booth 301.



JTRS and SCA Background

The Software Communications Architecture mandated by the Joint Tactical
Radio System (JTRS) program office provides a software framework for the
implementation of software defined radio platforms. This framework
provides many features to increase the portability of waveforms by
including a common operation environment and a set of common services
and standardized component interfaces. For more information, visit:

http://jtrs.army.mil/sections/technicalinformation/fset_t...




About the Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC)


CRC, an agency of Industry Canada, is the Canadian government's primary
laboratory for research and development (R&D) in advanced
telecommunications. R&D is used for public policy purposes and to
strengthen the Canadian economy through technology and knowledge
transfer. Under its four research branches, CRC specializes in taking an
interdisciplinary approach to longer-term R&D in wireless systems, radio
fundamentals, communication networks, photonics and interactive
multimedia. Further details about CRC’s SDR technology, which include
the SCARI-Open and SCARI ++ software suites, are available at
www.crc.ca/rars <http://www.crc.ca/rars>> .





About Pentek


Pentek develops, manufactures and markets innovative DSP systems to
original equipment manufacturers, distributors and value-added
resellers. Pentek offers powerful VME, VXS, PMC, XMC, cPCI and PCI
boards for data acquisition, software radio and digital signal
processing featuring Texas Instruments C6000 DSPs, Freescale G4 PowerPCs
and Xilinx FPGAs. Pentek's I/O includes A/Ds, D/As, FPGAs, digital
up/down converters and more. Pentek equips all products with
high-performance I/O including gigabit serial interfaces and offers
strong DSP software support.



The URL for this news release is located at
http://www.pentek.com/whatsnew/ViewRelease.cfm?Index=88



###



Pentek and GateFlow are registered trademarks of Pentek, Inc. Brand or
product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their
respective holders.





North American Sales Contact: Mario Schiavone, Pentek, Inc., One Park
Way, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458-2311; telephone 201-818-5900, ext.
766; fax 201-818-5904; email news@pentek.com <mailto:news@pentek.com> ,
website www.pentek.com <http://www.pentek.com/>>



International Sales Contacts: VSystems SA in France at 130070060,
VSystems Electronic GmbH in Germany at 892737630, VSystems s.r.l. in
Italy at 119661319, VSystems AB in Sweden at 84441550, VSystems UK at
1494476000, Sela Electronic Systems in Israel at 36479969 and MISH
International in Japan at 425387650, Beijing BetaOne Sysjob Ltd. in
China at 1082784106 and Acetronix Co. Ltd. in Korea at 24202343. Please
visit http://www.pentek.com/contact/replist.pdf for a full list of
international Pentek representatives and distributors.







Media Contact:

Barbara Stewart

Patterson & Associates

Tel: 480-488-6909

Email: barbara@patterson.com <mailto:barbara@patterson.com>>



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