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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
XILINX AND ISR TECHNOLOGIES DEMONSTRATE WORLD'S
FIRST SOFTWARE-DEFINED RADIO USING PARTIAL RECONFIGURATION OF FPGAs
Technology dramatically reduces cost, power,
and size of software-defined radios
MILCOM CONFERENCE, MONTEREY, Calif., November 1, 2004 - Xilinx,
Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) and ISR Technologies today announced a fully
operational, software-defined radio (SDR) using partial reconfiguration
of FPGAs. The companies' are demonstrating the software-defined
radio at the MILCOM 2004 Conference being held from October 31 -
November 3, 2004 in Monterey, California.
The demonstration consists of a SD-IDU (Software Defined Indoor
Unit) modem from ISR Technologies instantiating a wideband waveform
in a Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGA to transmit video data to another
SD-IDU. While maintaining transmission of the wideband waveform,
the SD-IDU then initiates a narrowband waveform to also transmit
voice data to the other SD-IDU. By supporting multiple waveforms
in a single FPGA and seamlessly changing waveforms on a dynamic
basis without disrupting current waveforms, this powerful technology
can significantly lower the cost, power consumption and size of
an SDR. Partial reconfiguration of FPGAs is enabling a new model
of digital signal processing (DSP), known as a shared resources
model, in SDR modems.
"Xilinx's DSP and Aerospace & Defense Divisions are very
excited to be able to bring the promise of partial reconfiguration
of FPGAs to fruition in this demonstration with ISR Technologies,"
said David Squires, director of DSP Division Marketing at Xilinx.
"It is our expectation that this technology will transform
the way DSP is done in key SDR programs, such as JTRS, resulting
in lower cost tactical radios with longer battery life."
"The implementation of a shared resources model is of great
significance to the SDR community," said Pierre-André
Meunier, executive vice president of ISR Technologies. "We
were pleased to be able to work with Xilinx to prove the technology
could be supported in the SCA environment mandated for JTRS."
The Virtex-II Pro FPGA is the only signal processing device in the
SD-IDU, so it also must manage the radio control functions, as well
as the waveform processing. This is made possible by the embedded
hard PowerPC 405 core of the Virtex-II Pro device. By running a
real-time operating system, a CORBA ORB and Software Communications
Architecture (SCA) Core Framework on an embedded 405 core, all the
infrastructure necessary to manage the modem is available. This
is the infrastructure mandated for JTRS by the US Department of
Defense. This approach results in an SCA-enabled SDR System-On-a-Chip
(SoC), which also reduces cost, power and size by eliminating the
need for a discrete general-purpose processor.
Partial Reconfiguration of FPGAs
Partial reconfiguration is the ability for an application running
on an FPGA to dynamically configure or reconfigure a portion of
an FPGA to suit its needs, while other portions of the FPGA are
under use by other applications. This is analogous to multi-threading
of a general purpose processor (GPP). This technology enables support
for multiple independent waveforms concurrently in a single device
and supports independent loading and tearing down of waveforms.
Shared Resources Model
Partial reconfiguration of FPGAs is the requisite enabling technology
to support a shared resources model, as opposed to a dedicated resources
model. In a dedicated resources model, an SDR modem requires N sets
of dedicated processing resources (i.e., N FPGAs, N DSPs, N GPPs)
to support N waveforms. This inefficient implementation leads to
a higher power, more expensive modem that does not scale well. In
a shared resources model, less processing resources are required
since multiple waveforms can be supported on a single set of processing
resources. The result is a lower cost modem that consumes less power.
About ISR Technologies
ISR Technologies is a leading edge Software Defined Radio company.
By combining ISR's extensive signal processing expertise with its
state of the art Software Defined Radio (SDR) capabilities, ISR
produces Software Defined Modems and Communications Subsystems that
are unparalleled in flexibility, scalability, and performance. For
more information, visit www.isr-technologies.com.
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic
solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.
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