CHELMSFORD, Mass., 1 Aug. 2008. Mercury Computer Systems product engineers have designed, built, and proven the customized, high-performance Echotek Series with COTS reliability for a growing range of network-centric applications.
Highly reliable data acquisition is critical to embedded radar and signals intelligence (SIGINT) applications, in which the origin or location of signals of interest must be identified in real time to enable rapid analysis and action, recognizes a representative. For these network-centric operations, sensors and communications modules are migrating to smaller, self-contained platforms, posing challenges that position RF and mixed-signal receivers and transmitters to be as critical to the solution as computing.
The Echotek Series RF and mixed-signal solutions from Mercury Computer Systems enable a range of narrowband, wideband, and ultra-wideband tuning and receiving capabilities for challenging communications intelligence (COMINT), electronic intelligence (ELINT), electronic warfare (EW), radar, and other sensor-based applications.
One of Mercury's offerings is the Echotek Series ECV4 family of Two/Four-Channel FPGA-Based PMC/XMC/6U Digital Receivers, with a flexible FPGA-based architecture in a space-efficient PMC/XMC and 6U form factor.
Each member of the ECV4 family provides I/O connectivity and functionality, high-speed A/D conversion, and resolution from 8 to 16 bits. Optimized for wideband or narrowband multichannel data processing, these receivers provide multiple configurations and ruggedization levels for a variety of end-user missions, and are available in air-cooled or conduction-cooled versions.
"We've leveraged the unparalleled tuning and receiving capabilities of our Echotek products into a growing number of embedded COTS-based, network-centric computing solutions for our customers," says Randy Dean, vice president of Integrated Solutions at Mercury Computer Systems Inc. "With Mercury's expertise in system engineering, we can offer customers the best possible signal processing performance using the best-suited COTS components from Mercury and third-party suppliers. For example, we implemented a highly integrated system, including a mix of FPGA and ASIC processors and VME and VPX backplanes, into a 6U chassis with the Mercury software environment and Echotek tuners and receivers. This system exceeded compute performance levels for our customer."
