M8132A – 640 Gb/s Digital Signal Processor

Key features

• Two large Xilinx Ultrascale+ VU9P FPGAs available for custom processing functions
• 4 x 160 Gb/s bidirectional optical data interfaces (ODI) or 3 x ODI + 8 x 10 GbE interfaces
• Aggregate throughput up to 640 Gb/s input + 640 Gb/s output
• PCIe backplane interface up to Gen3 x8
• Deterministic latency between Digitizer, DSP module and AWG
• 2-slot AXIe module
• Part of Keysight’s Wideband Solution Platform (WSP)

Wideband Solution Platform

The M8132A is part of Keysight’s Wideband Solution Platform that consists of a portfolio of compatible instruments, including digitizer, arbitrary waveform generator, digital signal processor and storage modules. The interconnect between these products is based on a high-speed optical data interface.

Optical Data Interface / Gigabit Ethernet Interface

The AXIe Consortium has standardized a high-speed optical data interface (ODI) for advanced instrumentation and embedded systems (http://www.axiestandard.org/odispecifications.html).

The M8132A has four ODI ports on the front panel, each of which allows digital data to be transmitted and received at up to 160 Gb/s per direction.

The optical data interface serves as a backbone between wideband digitizers, AWGs, digital signal processing modules, mass storage devices or custom hardware. Due to the modular structure, different system configurations can be realized. A few examples are shown in the Applications section below.

One of the ODI interfaces can alternatively be configured as eight 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) interfaces, as shown in the following system block diagram.

System Block diagram

The M8132A is a powerful digital signal processing engine consisting of two Xilinx Ultrascale+ VU9P FPGAs, four ODI interfaces running at up to 160 Gb/s in+out each, an inter-FPGA link that consists of 16 high-speed links at up to 22 Gb/s and a PCIe Gen3 x8 link to the AXIe backplane. In addition, the module provides a trigger input and output, synchronization input and outputs for deterministic latency between compatible digitizers and AWG modules as well as 10 general purpose I/Os.

Realtime signal generation

In some AWG applications, waveforms and sequences are too complex to store them in the memory of a conventional AWG. The M8132A can offer a possibility to calculate the AWG waveform in real-time, e.g. radar pulses based on pulse descriptor words or a radio signal based on the digital content.

Record and Playback

In combination with a compatible AWG and digitizer, the M8132A can perform real-time processing in a wideband record and playback system. Depending on the amount of processing required, one or more M8132A modules can be cascaded.

Software

The M8132A is controlled from a windows-based PC through PCI Express or USB. A soft front panel application contains the necessary functions for configuring the ODI ports and loading FPGA images.

The soft front panel application also provides a SCPI interface for controlling the M8132A remotely.

FPGA Design and Configuration

Keysight offers the KF9000B PathWave FPGA Programming Environment that allows users to design and configure the FPGAs inside the M8132A. Please refer to http://www.keysight.com/find/pathwave-fpga for further information.

Deep technical FPGA design expertise as well as knowledge working with VivadoTM FPGA design flow from Xilinx is required to successfully implement functionality in the M8132A module. Please contact Keysight prior to purchasing the product to discuss the required configuration as well as support requirements.