On the BB60C, Does the FPGA Perform the FFTs, or Is It the Computer?

I’m reading the BB60C User Manual, and it states,
“From the ADC, digitized IF data is handed off to an FPGA where it is packetized. The Cypress FX3 peripheral controller streams the packetized data over a USB 3.0 link to the PC, where 80 million, 14-bit ADC samples per second are processed into a spectrum sweep or I/Q data stream.”

Does this mean that, in sweep mode, the FPGA performs the FFTs and sends the packetized spectral data to the computer, or does it mean that the samples are packetized and sent to the computer, and the computer performs the FFT?

Thanks!

Hi Gary,

Good question. In the BB60C, all of the signal processing happens on the PC side. This is also the case for the SA44B. Our recently released SM200A is the first receiver to move some of this processing to the FPGA, specifically when the instantaneous bandwidth is greater than what we can push through USB 3.0. The SM200A also has an image imbalance filter on the FPGA.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Regards,
Andrew

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