ACADEMIA

SRC Computers today announced that it has entered into a joint development agreement with NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications). Under the agreement, NCSA will develop software and processes that will allow programmers in the embedded systems and signal processing communities to write programs using MATLAB/Simulink for use on SRC's reconfigurable computing systems. The result of the collaboration will describe in detail how to utilize MATLAB/Simulink, Xilinx DSP System Generator, and the SRC Carte programming environment macro capability to implement Simulink fixed-point designs on SRC's reconfigurable MAP processors. NCSA will be using SRC's newest portable MAPstation product in its development work. Originally developed for the Air Force for use in mid-size UAVs (unmanned air vehicles), SRC's portable MAPstation is a compact general purpose COTS (commercial off the shelf) processor that typically performs operations such as radar processing, image processing and spectrum analysis 100 times faster than a microprocessor. The lightweight airborne enclosure weighs less than four pounds and has a maximum power consumption of 86 watts, 40 watts typical. "The result of our collaboration with NCSA will now give programmers in the areas of synthetic aperture radar (SAR), soft radio and image processing a direct path to take advantage of the power of our new portable and 6U CPCI high performance reconfigurable computing systems using software they're intimately familiar with," said Jon Huppenthal, President and CEO of SRC Computers. NCSA will develop several digital signal processing applications for SRC's portable MAPstation to showcase the MATLAB/Simulink-to-MAP programming ability. One set of these applications will build on NCSA's earlier work in software-defined radio as part of the National Center for Advanced Secure Systems Research (www.ncassr.org) funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Other applications for the portable MAPstation will include speech analysis and image processing. These applications will be ready for demonstration as early as Q4 2006. Production units of SRC's portable MAPstation are now available, and some of the features include: -- Powerful programming capability in a compact size -- just 130 cubic inches in volume (about the size of a laptop PC) -- The ability to accommodate GPIOX boards which allow the user to access 9.6 GBytes/s of direct I/O bandwidth -- ADCXA Dual 2Gsample 10 bit A/D converter with on board precision clock source now available -- 60 M user gates -- Two enclosure options -- a handheld rugged enclosure and a lightweight airborne enclosure weighing less than 4 pounds -- Operates from batteries or an external 12v source -- Pentium M processor -- Provides all standard PC interfaces -- Software compatible with all other SRC products