Recently updated, this handbook reviews some of the techniques and features that are widely desired in a high-speed, real-time recording system. These include, among others, the use of a non-proprietary file system, such as NTFS, the use of a client-server architecture, and the presence of an API for integrating the recorder into a larger system. Pentek Talon Recorders are also reviewed and links are provided for datasheets with full specifications of these products.

Register here to download your free copy.

High-performance network systems tend to be the playground of the big boys—companies like Cisco, with the staff to tackle the latest hardware as soon as it is available. The high end used to be 10 Gbit/s Ethernet but the cutting edge has move to 100 Gbit/s. Still, the 10 Gbit/s arena is still hot, and these days more workstations and PCs are still sporting 1-Gbit/s Ethernet links.

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This made Digilent's NetFPGA-SUME (Fig. 1) board an interesting platform to check out. The system can handle 100 Gbit/s of throughput, and multiple boards can handle even more data together. The fastest link on the board is 10 Gbit/s. This is the same board I mentioned in a recent Lab Bench blog.

I will say up front that I have not really had a chance to exercise the board as extensively as I would like, simply because of the level of sophistication and the amount of time I have available—not to mention, the level of expertise required to really give this board a run for its money.

What I did do was take advantage of software available at NetFPGA.org. This is an open hardware and software site designed to support the NetFPGA boards. The Net-FPGA-SUME is at the top end of the family of boards addressed by the site. The platform is supported by vendors including Xilinx, Cypress Semiconductor, Micron, and Linear Technology.

It is also supported by a number of groups and educational institutions, among them the Computer Measurement Laboratory, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the National Science Foundation, Stanford University, and the University of Cambridge. Some of the projects target network communication, but that is not the only thing the platforms can be used for. The boards can also be employed for data acquisition and high speed processing.

Digilent's NetFPGA-SUME hosts a Xilinx Virtex-7 690T supporting 30 13.1 GHz, RocketIO GTH transceivers—including four for 4 SFP+ interfaces, 10 on an HPC FMC connector, and eight on a QTH connector. There is also a PCI Express Gen 3 x8 interface. FPGA configuration memory consists of a pair of 512 Mbit Micron StrataFlash chips, three x36 72Mbits QDR II SRAM from Cypress Semiconductor, and a pair of 4 Gbyte DDR3 SODIMMs. The system has a Micro-USB JTAG connector that can double as a UART interface for debugging. The board also has a pair of SATA 3 ports.

The free version of Xilinx’s Vivado development platform is sufficient for getting started, but the full version (along with 10 Gbit/s transceiver IP) will be required to utilize much of the software on the NetFPGA Github site. I found the site easy to navigate, which is important because all the documentation and software are online. The box with the board only includes a USB cable.

The board can be plugged into a PCI Express site. This is especially useful if the PCI Express interface will be used in an application. The board can also sit on the workbench with an external power supply.

The NetFPGA-SUME is $9,750, but there is a considerable educational discount. There are many less-expensive and less-powerful platforms that may be more suitable. There are many applications that can get by with 1 Gbit/s links instead of 10 Gbit/s. I know I was hard pressed to come up with stuff in my lab, although you may have some 10 Gbit/s Ethernet ports handy.

Given the expense and the expertise necessary to use this board, it is definitely not in the same realm as a Raspberry Pi or even a Xeon Phi. This is high-performance FPGA territory. It can do some amazing things with the right design handling 100 Gbit/s of data in real time. Many of the projects address things like software defined networking (SDN), including support for Openflow and image and video stream processing. Multiple boards could be linked together to provide a 300 Gbit/s non-blocking switch (Fig. 2).

Overall, it was an interesting exercise. The platform is great if you have interests that match projects on the NetFPGA site and are not interested in doing all the heavy lifting to get started. There are projects that are ongoing at the educational institutions.

Software Defined Radio has revolutionized electronic systems for a variety of applications that include communications, data acquisition and signal processing. Recently updated, this handbook shows how DDCs (Digital Downconverters), the fundamental building block of software radio, can replace legacy analog receiver designs while offering significant performance, density, and cost benefits. Pentek SDR products and some of their applications are also presented.

Register here to download your free copy.

Over the last few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has morphed into the trademark for a monumental shift in the field of electronic design, with processors and wireless components now routinely finding their way into analog technology. As this shift introduces new layers of complexity into the design process, test equipment has followed suit, rising to new heights of customization and integration. 

Tektronix Inc., for instance, recently expanded its family of mixed-domain oscilloscopes, which can provide a synchronized view of the analog, digital, and spectral signals within IoT devices. The MDO4000C features an oscilloscope with bandwidth ranging from 200 MHz to 1 GHz, and can be upgraded with up to five other testers. These include an arbitrary waveform generator, spectrum analyzer, logic analyzer, protocol analyzer, and digital voltmeter.

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Varun Merchant, a technical marketing manager at Tektronix, says that the oscilloscope was built around the growing expectation for highly integrated equipment. He adds that oscilloscope users not only want to save time using fewer instruments but also want the option to upgrade their test equipment based on changing product requirements. The average oscilloscope replacement cycle is estimated around 5 to 7 years, according to Tektronix research.

As design projects gain new dimensions, the testing requirements naturally grow. For instance, engineers building an audio speaker will require additional testers as the product evolves from analog to battery-power and through to a wireless speaker. According to data gathered by Tektronix, about 95% of engineers currently using oscilloscopes are also using digital multimeters, 76% function generators, 59% spectrum analyzers, 59% arbitrary waveform generators, and 47% logic analyzers.

Like the previous generation of mixed-domain oscilloscopes from Tektronix, the primary targets for the new MDO4000C are embedded design and debugging, power design, and EMI troubleshooting. Since it incorporates both frequency domain and time domain measurement hardware, it can also be used for testing wireless integration. With the built-in spectrum analyzer, the oscilloscope does not depend on math functions like Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to perform frequency-domain measurements.

The core oscilloscope within the MDO4000C features a 20-Mpoint record length and up to 5 GS on the four analog channels. The more than 340,000 waveforms/s capture rate helps to find glitches quickly and mark how often they occur. The oscilloscope can be combined with the 50-GHz arbitrary function generator to load, edit, and replay captured signals, enabling engineers to recreate margin tests by adding noise to their signals.

The optional spectrum analyzer has a measurement bandwidth between 9 MHz and 3 GHz in the standard configuration, but can be enhanced to 6 GHz with an upgrade kit from Tektronix. The instrument supports capture bandwidth up to 3 GHz, while the spectrogram display offers a glimpse into slowly changing RF phenomena.

The final three options provide capabilities for testing mixed-signal designs. These include a 16-channel logic analyzer with timing resolution down to 60.6 ps and the ability to simultaneously capture multiple logic families. Also supported is an optional protocol analyzer that can measure up to three buses simultaneously with triggering up to 500Mb/s. Finally, the digital voltmeter provides 4-digit AC_RMS, DC, and AC+DC_RMS voltage measurements, along with a 5-digit frequency counter.

The price of the MDO4000C ranges between $7,300 and $17,400, depending on the analog bandwidth of the oscilloscope and additional options. All models include mixed-signal hardware and can be upgraded to make these measurements with a software upgrade. The frequency range on the spectrum analyzer and the analog bandwidth on the oscilloscope can also be upgraded.

Many designs use SERDES interfaces to move data. Check out these common layout requirements related to SERDES designs, and see how electrical rule checking can help identify issues on PCB boards that violate requirements.

The charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is expanding throughout the United States, buffered by large investments from the automotive industry, government initiatives, and international calls to reduce carbon emissions. As a result, the market for semiconductors used in these charging stations is expected to grow rapidly over the next few years, according to a new report from chip industry research firm IHS Technology.

The revenues earned from the semiconductors built into charging stations was around $44 million in 2014, according to IHS Technology. However, the new report predicts that as more electric vehicles hit the road and the demand grows for additional charging stations, the global market for these components will reach approximately $233 million in 2019.

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The bill of semiconductors used in charging stations is vast, ranging from the power semiconductors that channel electricity between the charger and the vehicle, to the communication chips linking the station to the smart grid. The report adds that the electric vehicle companies are trending toward systems-on-chip (SoCs) that not only provide faster control, but also include the memory chips required for secure communications.

In the United States, the infrastructure surrounding electric vehicles is still extremely limited relative to the nearly 253 million vehicles that were on the road in 2014, only a tiny fraction of which were electric. According to the Alternate Fuels Data Center, the Department of Energy’s clearinghouse for information on electric vehicles, there are now 11,578 electric charging stations and 29,436 public charging outlets spread across the United States, excluding private charging stations.

Noman Akhtar, an industrial semiconductors analyst for IHS, says that fast charging is a necessary step toward the widespread usage of electric vehicles and building out the infrastructure around them. And higher power ratings are required to support shorter charging times. “Electric vehicle charging stations with higher ratings require more power semiconductors, especially discrete semiconductor components,” he says.

Charging equipment for electric vehicles is classified by the rate at which the batteries are charged. AC Level 1 chargers, which are normally compatible with household outlets, add about 2 to 5 miles of range to an electric vehicle per hour of charging time, according to the Alternate Fuels Data Center. Although they requires special charging equipment, AC Level 2 chargers add about 10 to 20 miles of range per hour of charging time.

On the other hand, direct-current (DC) fast chargers represent the core technology within the public charging infrastructure, adding 50 to 70 miles of range in about 20 minutes, according to the Alternate Fuels Data Center. These stations are used by Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Tesla Motors in several different configurations and charging speeds. Tesla Superchargers can apparently provide 170 miles of range in about a half hour, delivering up to 120 kW of DC power directly to the battery.

In 2014, according to the IHS report, the average price for semiconductor components in a level-two charging station was about $143. By comparison, semiconductor components used in the latest fast-charging DC chargers now cost more than $1,000. DC chargers are almost universally favored in public infrastructure because they provide faster charge times, but it has become increasingly common for hotels and parking garages to invest in lower-cost AC chargers for vehicles parked in the same place for hours. 

On another front, semiconductors are also required for the communications modules within the charging stations. In addition to smart grid compatibility, charging stations will eventually gain features like credit card readers, billing software, high-resolution displays, automated diagnostics, controlled power flow, and internal metering—all of which will require processors and other semiconductor components.

The IHS Technology report came as the climate change summit in Paris ended earlier this month, punctuated by an international accord reached by 195 countries to lower greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change. According to a 2013 study by the Environmental Protection Agency, about 27% of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation industry, only slightly less than the emissions from generating electricity.

“

Statistical analysis is capable of reaching BER levels as low as 10^-12 and beyond. Still, statistical simulation is unable to consider some important effects/impairments, mostly associated with non-stationary or non-linear behavior such as:

• Correlation of logical states in the input pattern
• Data-dependence of transition waveform shapes, manifesting non-LTI behavior
• Accurate consideration of transmit jitter and noise, including data-dependent

This white paper proposes a way to accurately consider all these effects in a single statistical analysis flow.

”

“

Statistical analysis is capable of reaching BER levels as low as 10^-12 and beyond. Still, statistical simulation is unable to consider some important effects/impairments, mostly associated with non-stationary or non-linear behavior such as:

• Correlation of logical states in the input pattern
• Data-dependence of transition waveform shapes, manifesting non-LTI behavior
• Accurate consideration of transmit jitter and noise, including data-dependent

This white paper proposes a way to accurately consider all these effects in a single statistical analysis flow.

”

Quantum bits are the basic logic elements of quantum computers, as they correspond to the binary bits processed and stored by transistors in modern computer chips. Now, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have taken the latest step toward incorporating quantum devices into computer technology, inventing semiconductor nanostructures that process information using quantum bits. 

The invention of the nanostructures, however, was not the most significant aspect of the research. Of greater importance, the researchers said, was the ability to preserve the quantum bits contained within the nanostructures. Making certain that quantum bits, also known as qubits, remain intact while being stored has long been one of the major obstacles to making reliable quantum computers.

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A team of physicists headed by Alexander Bechtold and Jonathan Finley at TUM’s Walter Schottky Institute created the nanostructures by evaporating indium gallium-arsenide (GaA) onto GaA substrates. The different lattice spacing of the two semiconductor materials creates strain at the interface between the crystal grids, producing what are known as quantum dots.

These quantum dots are extremely small lumps of semiconductor material that contain qubits and loosely correspond to electronic transistors. When the quantum dots are cooled down to liquid helium and excited by optical pulses, a single electron can be trapped in each dot. The electron’s spin serves as the information carrier, where “spin up” or “spin down” correspond to the standard logical information units 0 and 1. Laser pulses can read and alter the states optically from outside nanostructure.

Because they operate in a quantum-mechanical manner, however, the qubits can exist simultaneously as both 1 and 0, or some point in between. Being able to perform multiple operations at once could make quantum computers millions of times more powerful than modern supercomputers. They are thought to be ideal processors for breaking data encryption codes or searching large databases.

In spite of its potential speed benefits, there exist mechanisms through which the quantum data can be inadvertently lost. The strain between the semiconductor materials can generate tiny electric fields that result in “uncontrolled fluctuations in the nuclear spins” and alter the information, Bechtold says. It was also observed that electron spins are influenced by the spin of surrounding atomic nuclei.

The research, which was published in the journal Nature Physics and supported in part by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, introduced a method to reverse this quantum amnesia. “Both loss channels can be switched off when a magnetic field of around 1.5 tesla is applied,” says Bechtold. “This corresponds to the magnetic field strength of a strong permanent magnet. It stabilizes nuclear spins and the encoded information remains intact.”

Quantum dots are one of several competing technologies trying to at least coexist with electronic transistors in logic gates and computer processors. Optical computers, for instance, imprint data onto light waves and process information as it travels through silicon chips. All-optical devices can operate with extremely fast switching speeds and high energy efficiency because they exhibit lower heat loss, better signal-to-noise ratios, and reduced susceptibility to interference.

The TUM research team is optimistic about the future of their quantum computers because they were built from common semiconductor materials compatible with standard manufacturing processes—another major stumbling block to building a working quantum computer. The quantum dots can even be equipped with electrical contacts, allowing them to be controlled not only with lasers but also using pulses of electricity.

“Overall, the system is extremely promising,” says Finley. “The semiconductor quantum dots have the advantage that they harmonize perfectly with existing computer technology since they are made with similar semiconductor material.”

This paper, originally presented at DesignCon and nominated for a best paper award, includes an investigation of DDR4's Pseudo Open Drain driver and what its use means for power consumption and Vref levels for the receivers. Later, the paper looks at DDR4 system design examples and the need for simulating with IBIS power aware models versus transistor level models for Simultaneous Switching Noise characterization.