GE Intelligent Platforms Announces New Wideband Digital Receiver/Exciter Module

GE Intelligent Platforms, a provider of software, hardware, services and expertise in automation and embedded computing, announced the launch of SPR870A 3U VPX Wideband Digital Receiver/Exciter Module.

The Wideband Digital Receiver/Exciter Module features Xilinx (News - Alert) Virtex-6 FPGA technology to enable its deployment in wideband signal acquisition and conversion applications such as radar electronic counter measures (ECM), pulse intercept and analysis (ELINT) and radio frequency (RF) test applications.

The SPR870A is suitable for highly demanding and sophisticated ECM applications.

These applications include spoofing hostile radar allowing the host to change its perceived characteristics. With the digital receiver, the user can confuse enemy intelligence or jam remote control signals, enabling bombs to be defused more safely.

Rob McKeel, president, Military & Aerospace Embedded Computing, GE Intelligent Platforms (News - Alert), said the performance and wide bandwidth make SPR870A far more capable than typical software defined radio platforms, while offering significant flexibility in the breadth of applications it can address: “In the hands of our customers, the SPR870A can make a significant contribution to troop safety.”

The SPR870A allows key transmitter identification parameters such as instantaneous frequency, and modulation rate to be measured using DSP techniques. Waveforms can be stored as they are received, used as raw data to generate false returns, and played back on demand.

Company officials say that in near real time the ADC (News - Alert) input pass band is 10 MHz to 3.0 GHz (3dB) to allow for second Nyquist applications. For the most demanding, sophisticated applications a second Virtex-6 FPGA provides a Gen 2 PCI Express interface to the system controller. The company will offer other protocols, such as Serial RapidIO (News - Alert), on request.

Recently, GE Intelligent Platforms announced it signed an agreement that will see National Instruments (News - Alert) distribute the GE cPCI-5565PIO Reflective Memory PMC and PMC Carrier Card for 3U CompactPCI systems.