BittWare, supplier of FPGA computing and hybrid digital signal processing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) systems based on Altera’s FPGA technology, has released the S4 family of board-level signal processing systems which use Altera’s Stratix IV family of FPGAs. 

The first product in BittWare’s S4 family will be an AdvancedMC board targeting wireless communications applications. The S4 family roadmap also includes 3U and 6U ruggedized, conduction cooled VITA 46 (VPX) boards for military and aerospace applications such as radar, electronic warfare and image processing.

AMC and VPX cards provide support for comms and military/aerospace applications.

“We are excited with BittWare’s announcement to quickly adopt the Stratix IV family of FPGAs and deploy solutions for the COTS market," says Don Faria, senior vice president of application business units at Altera. "BittWare’s AMC and VPX cards will allow designers of communications and mil/aero systems to more quickly deploy their products and in turn, reduce their time-to-revenue."

"This product now delivers so much density, performance, and connectivity, along with decent power consumption and ease-of-use, that it should become the first choice for complex signal processing solutions,” said Jeff Milrod, president and chief executive of BittWare.

At the heart of the S4 family of COTS boards is a Stratix IV GX FPGA which facilitates all off-board I/O while providing communications routing and processing. The FPGA features up to 48 full-duplex, high-performance, transceivers operating at up to 8.5 Gbps and supports PCI Express Gen 1 and Gen 2, XAUI, Serial RapidIO, CPRI, CEI 6G, Interlaken and Ethernet.

Efficient routing is achieved using BittWare's ATLANTiS framework, which tightly integrates the I/O peripherals and the FPGA, and allows any combination of serial ports and off-board I/O interfaces to be routed together, providing nearly infinite options for configuring the I/O.

The BittWare FINe bridge provides control plane access to the Stratix IV GX, allowing for FPGA control, loading, and debugging over Ethernet and RS232/422.

More information: www.bittware.com

Sarsen Technology is BittWare's UK and Ireland distributor providing full local technical and commercial support. Visit www.sarsen.net or call +44 1672 511166 for more details.