News Briefs

Anritsu announced it has been awarded a contract in excess of $500,000 by the National Football League (NFL) to supply the league with 36 MS2721B Spectrum Master handheld spectrum analyzers. The MS2721B spectrum analyzers will be used by the NFL’s game day frequency coordinators (GDC) to research, troubleshoot, and analyze the RF spectrum at the league’s 32 stadiums before, during, and after games.

The MS2721B units delivered to the NFL are configured with interference analysis and channel-scanner options to ensure that the GDCs efficiently coordinate the approximately 400 or more frequencies used at each stadium during a regular season NFL game. RF is used by team coaches to communicate with players on the field; by broadcast TV and radio entities; by medical teams; and by security and public-safety personnel.

“Wireless communications usage has increased greatly since the league first implemented GDCs at Super Bowl XXX,” explained Jay Gerber, manager, NFL Frequency Organization Group. “We also had to consider the ever-shrinking RF spectrum as a result of digital TV and re-allocation of frequencies. Recognizing these factors, we wanted to provide our GDCs with the instruments they need to do the job effectively. The Anritsu MS2721B analyzer has proven to be a great tool to ensure they locate and resolve any RF conflict.” www.us.anritsu.com.

Engineers at NASA Glenn Research (Cleveland, OH) have developed the NDE Wave and Image Processor software and have made it available to US citizens. The software lets you perform analysis and processing operations on digitized waveforms, images, and series of images. It can extract specific information from signals and also help you predict or find defects in physical items.

As a signal processor, the software lets you analyze data in both the time and frequency domains. You can apply digital filters, calculate power, find timing delays, and remove noise from signals. As an image processor, the software lets you colorize, crop, and reorient images; denoise; enhance details; find edges of objects; and make measurements.

The NDE Wave and Image Processor also lets you perform wavelet analysis on signals and images. “The software brings wavelet processing into an interactive environment with its commercial-grade user interfaces,” said developer Donald Roth. It comes with 40 standard wavelets that you can apply to signals and images. Help files show you how to apply wavelets.

While the software is in the public domain, it requires the National Instruments IMAQ Vision Run-Time 8.5 engine. When you download the software, you get the runtime engine, which you can use for 30 days. After that, you must purchase a license for $299 from NI. US citizens can obtain NDE Wave and Image Processor at technology.grc.nasa.gov/software.

Accellera has announced that its members and Board of Directors have approved the VHDL 4.0 standard specification, which refines VHDL 3.0 based on feedback from trial implementations. The organization plans to release the latest version of VHDL (Very High Speed Integrated Circuit [VHSIC] Hardware Description Language) to the IEEE for balloting in 2008.

Accellera reports that VHDL 4.0 addresses more than 90 issues that were discovered during the trial implementation period for version 3.0 of VHDL (which was approved in October 2006), including enhancements to generic types, Intellectual Property (IP) protection, property specification language (PSL) integration, VHPI (VHDL application programming interface) integration, and the introduction of fixed- and floating-point types.

Jim Lewis, chair of the VHDL Analysis and Standards Group (VASG) at the IEEE, commented, “The VASG has plans in place to bring Accellera’s VHDL 4.0 to IEEE for balloting as IEEE 1076-2008. We are pleased that these VHDL language extensions and productivity enhancements are being standardized for industry adoption with Accellera’s support.” www.accellera.org.

Transmission channels can easily distort 10-Gbps signals, making them unrecognizable to receivers, and transmitters often add pre-emphasis to the signals to overcome the transmission losses. The BertScope digital pre-emphasis processor (DPP) boosts or attenuates test signals at speeds from 1 Gbps to 12.5 Gbps. It attaches between a BertScope bit-error rate (BER) tester/oscilloscope and a transmission channel. You can use the DPP to test receivers on serial buses such as 10-Gbit Ethernet, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), PCI Express, and DisplayPort. The DPP’s input consists of a data stream from the BertScope and a clock. It combines the two and forms a data stream with an embedded clock.

The DPP conditions the amplitude of bits by as much as 1.8 V based on bit transitions. For example, the first bit in a stream may need a 1.6-V amplitude, where following bits need 800 mV. Then, when a bit changes from 0 to 1, the DPP will amplify the signal. A 1-to-0 bit change causes the DPP to decrease signal amplitude. The DPP uses three tapped FIR filters to amplify or attenuate signals. You can control the instrument through its USB interface.

Price: $39,000. Synthesys Research, www.bertscope.com.

Agilent’s MSO/DSO 7000 series moves the company into the tall and shallow oscilloscope field. The 10 models, five with 16 logic inputs, feature 12.1-in. displays in cases less than 7-in. deep. Dubbed “InfiniiVision,” the oscilloscopes can update their screens at up to 100,000 times a second. The high update rate is possible because of a single field-programmable gate array (FPGA) that performs signal acquisition and processing.

The MSO/DSO 7000 oscilloscopes feature optional decode and triggers for popular communications buses such as RS-232, I2C, SPI, and CAN. Other optional applications include vector signal analysis, FPGA dynamic probing, power analysis, and segmented memory, which optimizes use of the instrument’s acquisition memory.

Each model has 8 Msamples of acquisition memory for two channels. Four-channel models have 4 Msamples available for each pair of channels. Sample rates run up to 4 Gsamples/s depending on the model. Bandwidth ranges from 350 MHz to 1 GHz. You can upgrade any of the digital-signal oscilloscope (DSO) models to mixed-signal oscilloscopes (MSOs) by adding the 16 logic channels. Your total cost will be the same as a new MSO.

Base prices: two-channel, 350-MHz DSO—$6950; four-channel MSO—$17,900. Agilent Technologies, www.agilent.com.

APEX and IPC Printed Circuits Expo, March 29–April 3, Las Vegas, NV. Sponsored by IPC, www.goipcshows.org.

SAE World Congress, April 14–17, Detroit, MI. Sponsored by the SAE, www.sae.org.

The Vision Show, June 10–12, Boston, MA. Sponsored by the Automated Imaging Association, www.machinevisiononline.org.

See our complete calendar at www.tmworld.com/events.