Software Defined Radio features MiniPCIe card format.
Press Release Summary:
Measuring 31 x 50 x 5 mm, Sidekiq supports operation as 2-channel phase coherent RF receiver or as single-channel RF transceiver providing independently tunable RF transmitter and receiver. Tuning range for RF transmitter and receiver covers 70 MHz to 6 GHz frequency range, supporting RF channel bandwidths up to 50 MHz. On-board Xilinx Spartan® 6 LX45T FPGA provides reconfigurable logic for signal processing tasks, as well as high-speed PCIe interface for performing low latency data transfer.
Original Press Release:
Epiq Solutions Announces Breakthrough Software Defined Radio in MiniPCIe Card
SCHAUMBURG, Ill., -- Epiq Solutions, an engineering firm specializing in the development of flexible wireless communications systems, has announced their next generation software defined radio platform called Sidekiq. Measuring just 31mm x 50mm x 5mm, Sidekiq is a MiniPCIe card that can be interfaced to a wide range of host computing platforms that currently support MiniPCIe, including laptops, tablets, and other embedded computing systems.
Sidekiq supports operation as a two-channel phase coherent RF receiver or as a single channel RF transceiver providing an independently tunable RF transmitter and receiver. The tuning range for both the RF transmitter and receiver covers the entire frequency range between 70 MHz and 6 GHz, supporting RF channel bandwidths up to 50 MHz. An on-board Xilinx Spartan® 6 LX45T FPGA provides both reconfigurable logic for signal processing tasks, as well as a high-speed PCIe interface for performing low latency data transfer between Sidekiq and the host system.
"Sidekiq is the culmination of our latest development efforts to deliver a radical improvement in size, weight, and power constrained radio systems, without sacrificing flexibility and functionality", stated John Orlando, CEO at Epiq Solutions. "Sidekiq paves the way for a whole new generation of capabilities where a reconfigurable RF transceiver can be fully integrated in to the multitude of computing devices available today."
The high level of integration in Sidekiq is made possible in part by leveraging Analog Devices' AD9361 RF transceiver, which is also used in Epiq Solutions' Maveriq platform. "We are very pleased to see the AD9361 helping enable size, weight, and power constrained SDR platforms, with even faster time to market than ever before," said James Caffrey, Marketing Director, Analog Devices.
To simplify the development of applications and systems based on Sidekiq, a Platform Development Kit (PDK) consisting of an easy to use software API, FPGA reference design source code, and example applications is provided. In addition, support for GNU Radio is also provided to leverage the extensive base of applications using this signal processing framework.
Sidekiq will start shipping in March 2014. Pre-orders are currently being accepted. Epiq Solutions will be rolling out support for a variety of Linux-based host hardware platforms in the coming months, including tablets and other embedded computing form factors. For more information, please visit http://www.epiqsolutions.com/sidekiq.
About Epiq Solutions
Epiq Solutions designs and builds state-of-the-art wireless systems for both commercial and government applications. These applications include the detection, classification, and location of radio emitters, as well as real-time processing and decoding of Layers 1, 2, and 3 for numerous wireless radio standards (including 2G/3G/4G cellular). For more information regarding Epiq Solutions' products and services, please visit http://www.epiqsolutions.com.
Contact Information
John Orlando
sales@epiqsolutions.com
847.598.0218
