Nu Horizons Electronics Corp. (NASDAQ:NUHC), a leading distributor of advanced technology active components and system solutions, today announced their new second generation virtual digital signal processing (DSP) design lab which builds upon the Spartan-3™ two million-gate XC3S2000 FPGA from Xilinx. This design lab is a collaborative effort of Nu Horizons with a number of industry leaders including: Xilinx, Inc., Linear Technology Corporation, Intersil Corporation and the Mathworks. Nu Horizons' signal processing virtual lab is the first of its kind to incorporate the Mathworks Simulink® simulation and model-based design with both analog-to-digital (A/D) converter interfaces and digital-to-analog (D/A) converter modules. In addition, the lab offers test equipment to provide signal insertion and measure output waveforms.
The signal processing virtual lab is configured to allow users to create and download high performance DSP applications. Advanced algorithms can be developed and complex measurements performed via a full complement of test equipment connected to the virtual lab environment. Both a Signal/Pattern Generator and High Speed Oscilloscope connect to A/D and D/A modules and each piece of test equipment is placed in the Host Mode in order to remotely manage the equipment's front panel controls. Settings and scripts are also easily saved for re-use on future sessions, while the signal insertion output measurement capability within the lab enables designers to validate their algorithms.
"Nu Horizons is committed to offering quick and easy access to new technologies," explains Athar Zafar, vice president of global engineering for Nu Horizons. "This lab enables customers to evaluate Xilinx FPGAs for Signal Processing applications in an online environment, providing users with accurate measurements, authentic results and greater confidence in their findings."
Reference DSP designs are provided in the virtual lab environment, allowing the design engineer to evaluate the Spartan-3 2000 FPGA in a pre-verified environment with ease. The Nu Horizons Signal Processing Virtual Lab consists of three reference labs:
Lab 1 - SysGen Tutorial - a lab introducing customers to other important design features including: ChipScope, HDL Cosim, Hardware Cosim and PicoBlaze.
Lab 2 - FFT with 256 Tap FIR filter and interpolation by 3 - a lab offering ease of use and reasonably high performance allowing design engineers to evaluate tool interfaces as well as hardware. The filter design is provided to the design engineer using the FDA Tool to generate coefficients, offering the designer the ability to modify coefficients and view results. Simulation can be run in Sysgen, as well as run live in hardware.
Lab 3 - Equalized 16-QAM Demodulator including the Adaptive Filter - The receiver architecture provides subsystems demonstrating adaptive channel equalization and carrier tracking on a random QAM data source.
Additional Virtual Design Lab features include:
Nu Horizons: Spartan-3 2000 Development Kit
Linear Technology: LTC 2249 14-bit 80Msps Analog-to-Digital Converter Evaluation Card
Intersil: High Speed DACs ISL5x29EVAL1 Evaluation Card
Agilent: 54830B Infinium Oscilloscope
Agilent: E4430B ESG-D Digital RF Signal Generator
Xilinx: ISE Foundation Development Environment
Xilinx: System Generator for DSP
Mathworks: Simulink Platform