Specifications

Introduction and Specifications
RVP8 User’s Manual
March 2006
1–4
1.1 System Configuration Concepts
The hardware building blocks of an RVP8 system are actually quite few in number:
S RVP8/IFDt IF Digitizer Unit- This is a separate sealed unit usually mounted in the
receiver cabinet. The primary input to the IFD is the received IF signal. In addition, the
IFD has channels to sample the transmit pulse and to take in an external clock to phase
lock the A/D conversion with the transmit pulse (not used for magnetron systems).
S RVP8/Rxt Card- A PCI card mounted in the chassis. It connects to the IFD by a
CAT-5E cable which can be up to 25m long. In addition, there are two BNC trigger
outputs and four RS-422 programmable I/O signals.
S I/O-62t Card and Connector Panel- These handle all of the various I/O associated
with a radar signal processor, such as triggers, antenna angles, polarization switch
controls, pulse width control, etc. The Connector Panel is mounted on either the front or
rear of the equipment rack and a cable (supplied) connects the panel to the I/O-62.
S Optional RVP8/Txt card- This supplies two IF output signals with programmable
frequency, phase and amplitude modulation. In the simplest case it might merely supply
the COHO which is mixed with the STALO to generate the transmit RF for Klystron or
TWT systems. More interesting applications include pulse compression and frequency
agility scanning. This card is not necessary for magnetron systems.
S PC Chassis and Processor with various peripherals- a robust 4U rack mount unit with
a dual-Xeon mother board, diagnostic front panel display, disk (mechanical or flash),
CDRW, keyboard, mouse and optional monitor for local diagnostic work. Redundant
power supplies are used, and there are redundant fans as well.
This modular hardware approach allows the various components to be mixed and matched to
support applications ranging from a simple magnetron system to an advanced dual polarization
system with pulse compression. Typically SIGMET supplies turn-key systems, although some
OEM customers who produce many systems purchase individual components and integrate them
by themselves. This allows OEM customers to put their own custom “stamp” on the processor
and even their own custom software if they so choose.
For the turnkey systems provided by SIGMET, the basic chassis is a 6U rack mount unit as
described above. A 2U chassis can be provided for applications for which space is limited. A
very low cost approach is to use a desk side PC, but this is not recommended for applications
that require long periods of unattended operation.
To illustrate various RVP8 configurations, some typical examples are shown below. For clarity,
all the examples show the single–board computer approach. A mother board approach is
equivalent.
Example 1: Basic Magnetron System
The building blocks required to construct the basic system are: