Scenario 1: No FPGA Customization Needed

Each Pentek data acquisition and processing hardware product has an FPGA. Pentek's Jade family uses a Xilinx® Kintex® Ultrascale® FPGA. Like all Pentek products, Jade includes a full suite of built−in FPGA−based functions. For example, in the case of an A/D converter product, these functions include:

• an A/D data acquisition engine,
• a fully−programmable DDC,
• power meters and a threshold detect function,
• a timestamp and metadata creation engine,
• and a linked list DMA engine that allows users to customize data transfers to a host computer.

In many cases, users will find that the built−in FPGA−based functions satisfy all the requirements of their application and no custom FPGA IP is needed. For these users, the FPGA looks like just another piece of hardware with fixed functions and a fixed interface for status and control.

In this situation, the Navigator Board Support Package (BSP) API is the best solution for creating applications that control the Jade hardware. Provided as a C−callable high−level API, many of the most commonly used built−in functions can be controlled with simple commands. In addition, example programs and the Signal Viewer allow users to immediately start acquiring and displaying data in the time and frequency domains without the need for creating any code.

For more information about the Navigator BSP, refer to the Navigator BSP User’s Guide. Details about the API can be found in the Navigator API Reference Guide.