SL-SPX-4 Spectra-4 Software Defined Radio Platform, 4 TX / 4 RX, 70 MHz – 6 GHz

Spectra-4 is a multi-channel software defined radio platform that pairs two Analog Devices AD9361 wideband transceivers with a Xilinx Zynq-7035 SoC. The two transceivers provide four independent transmit and four independent receive chains covering 70 MHz to 6 GHz, all of which can be active at once, and they share a common reference so the chains can be operated coherently for MIMO links, direction finding and multi-channel measurement.

The Zynq-7035 combines a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processing system with programmable logic on one device, so sample handling, hardware acceleration and the application software all live on the same chip. SFP+ and Gigabit Ethernet carry data off the board, SATA 3 records it locally to an SSD or HDD when the capture rate exceeds the link, and DDR3L, SD card / eMMC, USB host, dual RS-485, dual RS-232 and 16 GPIO cover buffering, boot and system integration.

Key specifications

Features

• Two AD9361 transceivers – 4 TX and 4 RX, 70 MHz to 6 GHz
• Simultaneous multi-channel transmit and receive
• Xilinx Zynq-7035 SoC, dual-core Cortex-A9 plus programmable logic
• 1 Gbit DDR3L memory for buffering and application execution
• SFP+ and Gigabit Ethernet high-speed links
• SATA 3 for local RF recording to SSD or HDD
• SD card / eMMC boot and storage, USB host port
• 2 × RS-485, 2 × RS-232 and 16 bidirectional GPIO

Applications

• Software defined radio
• MIMO wireless communication
• Spectrum monitoring and signal intelligence
• RF test and measurement
• Radar and direction finding
• High-rate data acquisition and recording

Ordering

AD9361 is a product of Analog Devices, Inc.; Zynq is a product of AMD/Xilinx. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Preliminary datasheet. Figures marked TBD have not yet been characterised and are subject to change. Contact support@stripline.org for the latest datasheet, quotations and technical support.