A COMPACT 500 MS/SEC WIDEBAND SNAPSHOT RECORDER/WORKSTATION

Abstract

This paper describes the design of the TCM Plus, an integrated 500 MSample/second snapshot recording system that achieves high performance in a compact, modular implementation. The system can record and playback analog and digital signals at sample rates from 10 KHz - 500 MHZ with RAM-based storage of up to 256 MBytes. High density multi-layer circuit card designs and custom and semi-custom chips were required to meet the physical size design objective of a 7" high rack mount chassis for the memory unit. A highly graphical computer with standard busses was imbedded as the system controller, resulting in the capability to tightly couple wideband acquisition with signal processing application software which can turn the system into an ultrahigh performance signal processing workstation.