TI's Development Platform Enables Rapid Development and Optimization of Multi-Protocol Radios

( 1 Jan 2007 )

Texas Instruments Incorporated's Small Form Factor Software Defined Radio (SDR) Development Platform is said to be the industry's first and only development platform targeted at the portable military communications market. The platform, developed in collaboration with Xilinx Inc. and other third parties, provides the entire signal chain hardware from antenna to baseband as well as a software board support package that supports a complete suite of software development tools in a single integrated development platform.

With the kit, developers can now easily design waveforms as well as create and test single or multi-protocol radios for applications in military, public safety, commercial, professional mobile radio (PMR) and land mobile radio (LMR) communication systems as well as RFID readers. Additionally, as the platform is integrated to work with Simulink model-based design tool, developers have the option to use C/HDL or MATLAB Simulink to quickly test proof-of-concept designs and then optimize the architecture for cost and power.



Complete Hardware and Software Flexibility
Unlike other SDR development offerings in the market, the SDR Development Platform is a hardware/software co-development environment that supplies the full signal chain for a multiprotocol software defined radio, including RF frontend module, A/D and D/A data conversion module and digital processing module. By separating out the baseband, IF, and RF as distinct modules rather than as a single fixed architecture, developers are able to extend their radio development capabilities, as well as optimize for cost and power consumption, by substituting their own or third party modules. This flexibility is vital, as it gives developers the ability to adjust their products around the industry's constantly varying requirements.

The digital processing module capitalizes on the performance and architecture benefits of TI's TMS320DM6446 system on chip (SoC) comprised of TI’s TMS320CC64x+ digital signal processor (DSP) core and an ARM9 general-purpose processor. The high-performance DSP core streamlines complex signal processing, while the GPP supports network and application processing. Because the DM6446 device is equipped with both a DSP and ARM on a single chip, developers benefit from reduced system space and cost. TI's DM6446 SoC also comes complete with a full set of peripherals necessary for SDR, including serial ports, USB and Ethernet connections and DDR2 and NAND flash memory. The module also comes with a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA for modem co-processing and acceleration functions.