Fidus Solution Portfolio

INDUSTRY: Aerospace/Defense

DESCRIPTION: This 133MHz, 64-bit PCI add-in card was designed to PCI Specification and is used to provide remote access control and maintenance of high-end servers. Capable of providing remote KVM services, and operation that is truly independent of the host state (including power), this card allows the remote system administrator to recover failing or failed hosts.

This product family features video capture and forwarding functions, USB, Ethernet, and PS2, interfaces. One of the highlights of this design was the power architecture which enabled the PCI card to run from PCI power or a wall adapter or battery back-up, and the ability to intelligently select and seamlessly switch between any power source. Intelligence was provided by an Intel® processor, an Intel non-transparent bridge, and a Xilinx® FPGA.This 6U VME form factor card was designed for a defense contractor who wanted to add AIS (Automatic Identification System) to their airborne search and rescue radar system. To deliver this product, we relied on our expertise in hardware, wireless, FPGA/DSP, and embedded software design. The system highlights include an AGC system to provide incredible RF sensitivity, and an FPGA-based software defined radio DSP engine.

To bring-up, debug, and characterize this product, we used The Mathworks MATLAB® to generate a large number of test waveforms that we then loaded into our vector signal generator. In addition to extensive laboratory testing, we also had the opportunity to test our AIS equipment in various cities including Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Seoul, and Istanbul.

TECHNOLOGIES: AIS, SDR (software defined radio), Xilinx® FPGA, PowerPC® hardcore, VHF, AGC, programmable attenuators, power amplifier, VME, VITA, IEC 60945, IEC 61662, DO-160E, IEC 61993-2, ITU M1371, NMEA0813, conformal coat, sensitivity, intermodulation, co-channel, adjacent channel, rejection, spurious emissions, GPS, message, signal integrity