Communications: Spectrometer IP Core For FPGAs Handles 1-GHz Sampled Signals

Based on the company's HyperSpeed fast Fourier transform (FFT) technology, a block of intellectual property that implements a spectrometer makes possible advances in radio astronomical receivers that operate in the frequency domain. Able to operate with sampled 1-GHz signals at its input, the core converts the signal to a frequency power spectrum using a digital band filter and a 16-kpoint FFT in continuous real time. This enables a 400-MHz bandwidth of radio spectrum with a passband ripple of only 0.001 dB to be analyzed with a frequency resolution of 30.5 kHz. The combination of very wide bandwidth and fine resolution can be implemented in a single FPGA such as a Xilinx Virtex II Pro, making it quick to implement and cost-effective versus traditional approaches. Contact the company for licensing arrangements.