Specifications and Interfaces
Cyan is a high channel count, ultra wide band, high gain, direct conversion quadrature transceiver and signal processing platform. Providing simultaneous support for up 16, fully independent, transmit or receive radio channels, this flexible platform uses four 40GBASE-R qSFP ports to quickly receive and transmit radio data. With a standard instantaneous bandwidth of 1GHz (upgradable to 3GHz using our high bandwidth option), 16 bit converter resolution, and a tunable RF range between 100kHz to 20GHz, Cyan aims to provide end users with the best possible performance available from a commercial vendor. Cyan is compatible with various signal processing tool kits, including GNU Radio and includes source code for many of its drivers and peripherals.
Note
Cyan is capable of Digital Down/Up Conversion, so superhet architectures can be implemented using Digital Down/Up Conversion on the FPGA.
Absolute Maximum Ratings
Stresses beyond those listed in the Absolute Ratings Table 1 may cause permanent damage to the device. These ratings are stress specifications only. Functional operation of the product at these conditions is not implied. Exposure to absolute maximum rating conditions for extended periods of time may affect reliability and is, therefore, not recommended.
Warning
 |
EXCEEDING ABSOLUTE RATINGS MAY DAMAGE DEVICE AND MAY CAUSE DANGEROUS FIRE OR ELECTRICAL HAZARDS Exceeding these ratings may substantially damage device, and the resulting hazards may cause serious personal injury or death. |
Table 1: Absolute Ratings: Exposure or sustained operation at absolute ratings may permanently damage Cyan. Ensure fan inlets (located on both sides of the device) are not blocked during operation.
| Specifications | Min | Max | Units | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating Temperature | 5 | 30 | C | At fan inlet |
| Operating Humidity | 5 | 100 | % | Non-Condensing |
| Storage Temperature | 0 | 40 | C | |
| Storage Humidity | 20 | 95 | % | Non-Condensing |
| Input RF Power | 10 | dBm | Do not exceed. | |
| IO and TRIG Voltage | 1.8 | V | Do not exceed: Direct to FPGA. | |
| External Reference | 3 | Vpp | Do not exceed. | |
| SMA Torque | 0.6 | 0.7 | Nm |
Specifications
Cyan is a very flexible radio and signal processing platform that supports high bandwidth communications over a wide tuning range. Specific performance figures are provided as an appendix to this manual; for specific measurements, please contact Per Vices.
To provide a general idea of what this product is capable of, Table 2 lists some conservative figures of its out-of-box performance. Configuration of the product towards a specific application may see some of these figures exceed at the expense of others. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Table 2: Calibration Measurements relative to 20˚C
| Specification | Min | Nom | Max | Units | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common Radio | RF Stage (LMX2595) | 0.5 | 20 | GHz | |
| Baseband Stage | 0.1 | 500 | MHz | ||
| Dynamic Range | 25 | 70 | dB | ||
| SFDR | 65 | dB | |||
| Receive Radio | RF Input Power | -40 | dBm | ||
| Noise Figure, Rx RF St | 3.1 | 7 | dB | ||
| Power Gain Low | 15 | 45 | dB | ||
| Power Gain High | -10 | 65 | dB | ||
| Group Delay (Radio Chain)\(^{1}\) Low | TBD | ns | |||
| Group Delay (Radio Chain)\(^{1}\) High | TBD | ns | |||
| Radio Channels | Independent Rx/Tx Channels\(^{2}\) | 16 | - | ||
| (Receive Converter) | ADC resolution\(^{3}\) | 12 | 16 | bits | |
| ADC Sample Rate\(^{3}\) | 1 | 325 | GSPS | ||
| Rx Sampling Bandwidth | 1 | GHz | |||
| Latency (input to serial)\(^{1}\) | TBD | ns | |||
| Receive DSP and FPGA Specs (default Firmware) | Decimation \(\left(\frac{f_{s}}{n}\right)\) | 1 | 65534 | - | |
| Latency (FPGA DSP)\(^{1}\) | TBD | ns | |||
| Transmit Radio | Transmit Power Low | -10 | 18 | dBm | |
| Transmit Power High | dBm | ||||
| Group Delay (radio chain)\(^{1}\) Low | TBD | ns | |||
| Group Delay (radio chain)\(^{1}\) High | TBD | ns | |||
| DAC (Transmit Converter) | Tx Output Bandwidth\(^3\) | 1 | GHz | ||
| DAC resolution | 16 | bits | |||
| DAC Output Bandwidth | 6 | GSPS | |||
| Latency (serial to output)\(^{1}\) | TBD | ns | |||
| Transmit DSP and FPGA | Interpolation (\(n\cdot f_{s}\)) | 1 | 65534 | - | |
| Specifications | Latency (FPGA DSP)\(^{1}\) | TBD | ns | ||
| Digital | On Board Processor Core | ARM Cortex-A53 | - | ||
| HPS RAM (DDR4) | 16 | Gb | |||
| FPGA RAM (DDR4, x2) | 64 | Gb | |||
| NAND Flash (x8) | 4 | Gb | |||
| Networking | 40GBASE-R, Data\(^{2}\) x4(each) | 40 | Gbps | ||
| 100BASE-T, Management x2 (each) | 1 | Gbps | |||
| Int. Reference (10MHz) | Frequency Stability | -5 | 5 | ppb | |
| Ext. Reference (10MHz) | Input Voltage Swing | 2.5 | 3 | Vpp | |
| IO, PPS, and TRIG | FPGA IO Voltage Range | 0 | 1.6 | V |
\(^{1}\)For additional information on latency, please contact us.
\(^{2}\)Default product contains 8 Rx and 8 Tx channels, but may be customized to support an arbitrary number of Rx or Tx channels.
\(^{3}\)Default product contains 1GSPS convertor with 16bit resolution. High bandwidth variant supports 3GSPS converter with 12 bit resolution.
External Interfaces
Cyan has a number of user accessible interfaces through which the device can connect to external sources and sinks. Management functions are carried out over a web page hosted by the Cyan transceiver and accessible using the Management Ethernet port on the front face of the device. Data is sent over the 40Gbps qSFP ports and receive and transmit antennas connect to the SMA connectors on the front of the device. Other peripherals ports provide access or the capability to improve functionality.
-
1Gbps Management Port Dual management ports connect to the on-board HPS, located on the FPGA silicon, and provide a unified interface by which to control and configure the platform.
-
40GBASE-R qSFP There are four qSFP ports on the front panel of the device that use 40GBASE-R encoding to directly communicate with an optical module and interface with a ten gigabit network. These ports directly interface with the FPGA fabric and support high bandwidth, low latency communication between the ADCs and DACs.
-
50\(\Omega\) SMA There are sixteen standard SMA radio headers the front of the unit. These are used to connect to external antennas, sinks, or sources, including:
channels count description Rx 8 The eight independent receive channels may be connected to external sources or antennas Tx 8 The eight independent transmit channels may be connected to external antennas or sinks -
USB 2.0 A USB port connects to the Linux system running on the Hard Processor System.
- Micro-SD Slot The FPGA and Hard Processor System may be rebooted or configured using an external Micro-SD card.
- Debug Mini-DSUB The debug port provides JTAG access, and allows for the complete configuration of the unit.
- Trigger Mini-DSUB The trigger port provides access to independent, per-channel, triggers for each radio resource.
- IEC320 C14 Power A standard «computer» cable plugs into this connector to power the unit. The power supply accepts 120V or 240V.
Operating System
Although Cyan may be used with any operating system, we strongly recommend using a Linux operating system. This ensures you will be able to take advantage of a very large body of high performance that exists to support high performance computing applications, while also providing a more comprehensive development environment. It will also allow users to more easily use our existing example code, and also provides for a higher performance computing environment. It is also possible to SSH into the small Linux distribution running on the on-board processor.
Network Interface Card (NIC) Requirements
Cyan uses a 40-gigabit Ethernet connection to quickly send and receive data. The following network cards have been tested for compatibility with Cyan. The recommended NICs for Cyan are:
| Manufacturer | MPN | Line Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Mellanox | MCX516A-CDAT | Regular |
| Napatech | NT200A02-2×100/40 | High-throughput |
If you have any questions or concerns about NIC card requirements, please do not hesitate to contact us.
If you’re using a module for the recommended NICs, you’ll want an interface that supports:
| Description | Cyan 40G | Cyan 100G | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electromechanical | qSFP+ | qSFP+ | |
| Protocol | 40GBASE-SR4 | 100GBASE-SR4 | We only support -SR4 type transceiver modules connected to Cyan) |
| Connector | MTP/MPO | MTP/MPO | Same as cables. |
| Transceiver DDM or DOM Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Optical Fiber Requirements
Cyan requires active optical cabling: Cyan can ship with high quality, qSFP cabling (AOC) that uses OM-1 type optical fiber (kit option). We suggest using Optical Multimode (OM) grade fiber (OM4 or better). In a production environment, or when integrating the product into existing infrastructure, you may use legacy FDDI grade fiber for short runs, though we advise testing worst-case performance across the longest run prior to wide scale deployment.
For the optical cabling connected to Cyan, to be used with the suggested qSFP+ transceiver and NICs, and directly connected to another transceiver, we recommend the following:
| Specification | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Cable | Type B (Method B) Female to Female cable |
| Connector Type | MTP/MPO (recommended) or (MPO) |
| Multimode Fiber Quality | OM4 or better (ie; OM5) |
| Number of Fibers | 12 |
| Polarity | Type B (patch cable) |
| Colour | any |
| Length | As short as possible (suggested <25m, up to 100m) |
The recommended qSFP+ optical fibre cables for Cyan are:
| Manufacturer | Product |
|---|---|
| Senko | MPO Female 12 Fibers Type B LSZH OM4 (OM3) 50/125 Multimode |
| Fibertronics | Female to Female, Multimode, OM4, 50/125, ONFP, Method B |
Fibertronics 3m, 12 Fiber MTP Cable, Multimode OM4, MTP - MTP is available here. If you have any questions or concerns about optical fiber requirements, please do not hesitate to contact us for further information.
Mechanical
Cyan conforms to a 3U form factor and 19-inch rack. A mechanical diagram can be found here .
RF Chain
Simulated RF chain performance (based on component specifications) yield the simulated performance indicated in Table 1 As both the receive and transmission chains use variable stages, the figures were calculated using midpoint references for attenuation and gain stages. With proper tuning and calibration, you should expect better values. More information on the specific RF chain used may be found in the System Architecture section.