UCT SoftwareDefined Radio Research Group UCT SDRRG Team

UCT Software-Defined Radio Research Group

UCT SDRRG Team l UCT Faculty: l l Ph. D Students: l l Alan Langman Mike Inggs Simon Winberg Brandon Hamilton MSc Students: l l Bruce Raw Gordon Inggs Simon Scott Joseph Wamicha UCT Software-Defined Radio Research Group

Current CASPER Hardware BEE 2 ROACH 2 *Disclaimer: Alan made me include this slide

Current Software =

Need for low-cost solution l l l Great boards and (relatively) easy-to-use toolchain But expensive, so not accessible to smaller research groups Lack of HPC skills in South Africa Low-cost h/w and s/w solution needed Enlarge CASPER community

Requirements l Low cost hardware l Simple design rather than low performance l Open-source software l Easy to learn and use l Compatible with existing h/w and s/w l Target software-defined radio apps

Proposed Solution l Similar to existing CASPER hardware (FPGA + processor) l Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA l l Sufficient performance for most apps, but lower cost TI ARM Cortex-A 8 processor l Large support community l FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC) connector l Python-based toolchain

Throw them all in a pot…

Mix them up…

And you get a Rhino!

Rhino Architecture 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM 2 x 128 MB DDR 2 SDRAM 256 MB NAND Flash 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps ethernet) USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps Ethernet, audio and video

Xilinx Spartan-6 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM • Xilinx XC 6 SLX 150 T • 676 -pin package DDR 2 SDRAM • 150 000 logic cells • 180 DSP 48 A 1 slices (up to 300 MHz) • 8 GTP transceivers • 4 integrated DDR 3 Memory Controller Blocks 2 x 128 MB 256 MB NAND Flash 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps ethernet) USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps Ethernet, audio and video

DDR 2 SDRAM 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM • Micron DDR 3 -1066 • 512 MB capacity • 25. 6 Gbps total bandwidth 2 x 128 MB DDR 2 SDRAM 256 MB NAND Flash 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps ethernet) USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps Ethernet, audio and video

FMC ADC/DAC Connectors 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM 2 x 128 MB DDR 2 SDRAM • FMC connectors for ADC and DAC cards • Support 2 cards 256 MB NAND Flash 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps ethernet) USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps Ethernet, audio and video

CX 4 10 Gbps Ethernet 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM 2 x 128 MB DDR 2 SDRAM • 2 CX 4 10 Gbps ethernet connectors • Supports copper-to -fibre adaptors 256 MB NAND Flash 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps ethernet) USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps Ethernet, audio and video

TI AM 3517 ARM Cortex-A 8 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM • Texas Instruments AM 3517 ZCN 2 x 128 MB DDR 2 SDRAM • 491 -pin package • 600 MHz ARM Cortex-A 8 core • Many integrated peripherals (e. g. USB, Ethernet, HD video port) • OS and drivers available 256 MB NAND Flash 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps ethernet) USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps Ethernet, audio and video

DDR 2 SDRAM 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM • Winbond 2 x 128 MB DDR 2 SDRAM USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps DDR 2 -800 Ethernet, audio and video • 256 MB capacity • 10. 6 Gbps 256 MB NAND Flash 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps ethernet)

NAND Flash Memory 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM 2 x 128 MB DDR 2 SDRAM • 256 MB NAND flash memory • Mainly for OS • Can store bitstreams too 256 MB NAND Flash 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps ethernet) USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps Ethernet, audio and video

USB and SD Card 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM 128 MB • 2 x ARM can boot off USB DDR 2 SDRAM drive or SD card • 2 USB host ports • JTAG over USB 256 MB NAND Flash 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps ethernet) USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps Ethernet, audio and video

100 Mbps Ethernet 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM 2 x 128 MB DDR 2 SDRAM • 100 Mbps ethernet for control 256 MB NAND Flash • Supports IEEE 1588 Precision. Time Protocol 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps • Sync ethernet) boards within 10 ns USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps Ethernet, audio and video

FPGA-Processor Bus 2 x 256 MB DDR 3 SDRAM 2 x 128 MB DDR 2 SDRAM USB, SD Card, 100 Mbps Ethernet, audio and video • 16 -bit data bus • 1. 3 Gbps 256 MB NAND Flash 2 x FMC Connectors 2 x CX 4 (10 Gbps ethernet)

FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC) l ANSI/VITA 57. 1 standard l Low-pin count: l l 160 pin 34 differential data pairs, 2 high-speed serial pairs 2 (+4) clocks, I 2 C, JTAG High-pin count: l l l 400 pin 80 differential data pairs, 20 high-speed serial pairs 4 (+9) clocks, I 2 C, JTAG

Why we chose FMC l Well-specified standard l l electrical interfaces, mechanical and thermal requirements Dedicated I 2 C lines for control Lots of commercial off-the-shelf ADC/DAC cards FMC-to-ZDOK+ adaptor for CASPER cards

4 DSP FMC 103 l l l 4 channel ADC 210 MSPS 12 -bit

Curtis Wright ADC 512 l l l Dual channel ADC 3 GSPS 8 bit

CERN Fmc. Adc 100 M 14 b 4 chb l l 4 channel ADC 105 MSPS 14 bit Open-hardware

Optimise cost+performance l Spartan-6 rather than Virtex-6 l 512 MB DDR 3, rather than QDR l 2 x 10 Gbps links l Total cost under $1500 l Training/research platform

The PCB Spartan-6 and DDR 3 SDRAM FMC Connectors ARM and DDR 2 SDRAM Back-panel Connectors Power Supplies

The Rhino Hide FMC to ZDOK+ adaptor FMC ADC/DAC Card kat. ADC *Also build desktop enclosure

The Toolchain Design system in Python (My. HDL) Python script My. HDL compiler Verilog/VHDL Xilinx synthesis tools Bitstream (bof file) Python script GNURadio block IP cores, VHDL blocks Synchronous dataflow model Mathematical validation

The Runtime Environment Spartan-6 FPGA BOF file GNURadio block GNURadio frontend Data over highspeed network Control commands over 100 mbps ethernet AM 3517 ARM processor Rhino

Other Applications l l Bioinformatics Financial predictions

The Rhino Vision

Thank you http: //rrsg 2. ee. uct. ac. za/rhino