User`s manual
X5-GSPS XMC Module
operating temperatures. This requirement is highly application dependent and must be evaluated for each application and
installation.
If forced air cooling is not used, conduction cooling is another method of dissipating the module heat. A thermal plane in the
card is attached to thermal conduction surfaces on each side of the module. The card can then be cooled by mounting the
card on host card that supports conduction cooling per VITA specification 20. The conduction cooling method allows the
module heat to be flowed out to the chassis. The thermal plane has NO electrical connection in the module and cannot be
used as a ground.
Temperature Sensor and Over Temperature Protection
The Virtex-5 System Monitor temperature sensor is described in detail in the Board Basics chapter of this manual. The
temperature sensor is used to monitor the Virtex-5 junction temperature and deactivate board power supplies to protect the
logic device from overheating.
Alert Log
Overview
X5 modules have
an
Alert Log
that
can
be
used
to
monitor
the
data
acquisition process
and
other
significant
events.
Using
alerts,
the
application
can
create a time history of the data acquisition process that shows when important events occurred
and
mark
the
data stream
to correlate system events to the data.
.
This
provides
a
precision
timed
log
of
all
of
the
important
events
that
occurred during
the
acquisition
and
playback
for
interpretation
and
correlation
to
other
system-level
events. Alerts
for critical system events such as triggering, data overruns, analog overrange, and thermal warnings provide the host system
with information to manage the module.
The Alert Log creates an alert packet whenever an enabled alert is active. The packet includes information on the alert, when
it occurred in system time, and other status information. The
system time is kept in the logic using a 32-bit counter running
at the sample clock rate.
Each
alert
packet
is
transmitted in the packet stream to the host , marked with a Peripheral Device
Number corresponding to the Alert Log.
The Alter Log allows X5 modules to provide the host system with time-critical information about the data acquisition to allow
better system performance. System events, such as over-ranges, can be acted on in real-time to improve the data acquisition
quality. Monitoring functions can be created in custom logic that triggers only when the digitized data shows that something
interesting happened. Alerts make this type of application easier for the host to implement since they don't require host activity
until the event occurs.
Types of Alerts
Alerts can be broadly categorized into system, IO and software alerts.
System alerts include monitoring functions such as temperature, time stamp rollover and PLL lost. These alerts just monitor
that the system is working properly. The temperature warning should be used increase temperature monitor and to prepare to
X5-GSPS User's Manual 85