MrDig
FPGA-based DSP platform
MrDig is the digital portion of the Modular Integrated Receiver/Digitizer, or MIRDer for short. It is essentially a reprogrammable radio receiver. MrDig and its companion IF/RF modules are the core elements in the Advanced Copperfield series of modular ESM receivers originally developed for the Naval Research Laboratory for use in RADAR surveillance applications. Capabilities were further enhanced with the inclusion of an AIS receiver module.
MrDig 3U CompactPCI modular receiver digital card.
KEY FEATURES
- MPC8265 Freescale PPC CPU
- Xilinx Virtex II FPGA
- CompactPCI Host or Agent slot, autodetected
- 6 channels of 12-bit ADC
- Linux and Uboot support
- Low power
MRDIG OVERVIEW
MrDig-based systems have been fielded on multiple platforms over the past several years, including Predator, Globalhawk, Firescout, and HarborWing, along with other ship and land based installations.
MrDig has six A/D converters running at up to 80MSPS feeding a large Xilinx FPGA, allowing complex digital processing of the data. These A/D converters are fed by one of several IF Mezzanine cards thru a 100 pin connector which provides the 6 IF/video BW differential signal pairs along with general purpose control and synchronization signals.
The processor can be booted from on-board flash, a CompactFlash card, or over the network, fitting into various development or field environments. Linux and Uboot are well supported.
The FPGA can be loaded via the processor or directly from the CF card. Pulse characterization and an AIS modem functions are currently implemented in the FPGA, with little or no load on the processor.
MrDig is a deployable prototype development platform, with excellent Linux support from Aeronix and the community and rapid FPGA development using Xilinx’s FPGA tools.
- CPU:
- MPC8265 Freescale PPC
- Memory:
- 256M RAM
- 32M Flash
- FPGA:
- Xilinx Virtex II
- XC2V3000 - XC2V6000
- Up to 6 million gate equivalents
- Interfaces:
- CPCI - 32 Bit, Host or Agent, autodetected
- 266MHz, 166MHz CPM 2 x 10/100MB Ethernet Ports
- 4 Serial Ports
- Aeronix MIRDER Mezzanine
- CompactFlash Type II Slot
- 3V and 5V GPIO to Backplane P2/Front Panel
- ADC
- 6 channels / 12-bits
- Programmable sample rate up to 65MSPS
- 500MHz analog BW
- Software environment
- Linux: Denx Software Engineering ELDK
- Bootloader: Denx Software Engineering U-boot
- FPGA tools: Xilinx ISE
- Mechanical: Double Wide (w/ Mezzanine) 3U CPCI (5.75"H x 1.6" Wide x 6.3" Deep)
- Power: < 4 Watts Operational, < 1 A @ 3.3V, < 0.1A @ 5V