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New National Instruments Hardware and Software Provide Dramatic Advances from Baseband to RF

March 17, 2005 – Engineers and scientists can now generate RF and baseband signals more than 300 times faster with the new National Instruments PXI-5671 RF vector signal generator and the new NI PXI-5441 arbitrary waveform generator with onboard signal processing. With the release of these modules and the new NI Modulation Toolkit 3.0 for LabVIEW, National Instruments offers a complete modular solution for generating high-speed communications signals.

The PXI-5671 module is a three-slot RF vector signal generator that delivers signal generation from 250 kHz to 2.7 GHz, 20 MHz of real-time bandwidth and up to 512 MB of memory. With the onboard digital upconverter on the module, engineers can achieve more than 300 times faster waveform download time or playback duration. This functionality is ideal for engineers who require data streaming with rapid response time for
software-defined radio (SDR) or faster download times for satellite radio applications. Engineers also can take advantage of the module’s configurable signal processing parameters such as prefilter gain and offset, finite impulse response (FIR) filters, cascaded integrator-comb (CIC) filters, a numerically controlled oscillator (NCO) and IQ mixing.

The new PXI-5441 module, a 100 MS/s arbitrary waveform generator for producing standard functions, arbitrary waveforms and waveform sequences, introduces onboard signal processing functionality. Onboard signal processing adds baseband interpolation/pulse shaping and quadrature digital upconversion capability for generating baseband I/Q and intermediate frequency (IF) signals up to 43 MHz. The PXI-5441 is the industry’s first
arbitrary waveform generator to combine these operating modes in a single module with instrument-quality analogue specifications.

The PXI-5671 and PXI-5441 modules ship with the new NI Modulation Toolkit 3.0 for LabVIEW. In addition to its ability to rapidly prototype any standard-specific or custom digital communication system, the software now includes channel coding, channel equalisation and channel models as well as new, easy-to-use pallet functions for ASK, PAM, AM-VSB and AM-SSB modulation formats. Because the Modulation Toolkit tightly integrates with
NI hardware, engineers can use the software to easily perform hardware-in-the-loop testing.

“Customers benefit from the increase in signal generation speed due to the quadrature digital upconversion capability onboard the NI PXI-5671 and PXI-5441 modules,” said Joseph E. Kovacs, NI RF Product Marketing Manager. “Using this new technology, engineers can reduce their download and signal generation time from 180 seconds to 0.5 seconds.”

The National Instruments RF and communications product line extends the speed and flexibility of virtual instrumentation into the GHz frequency range. With these tools, engineers have access to customisable functionality unavailable with traditional instrumentation for applications including radio frequency identification (RFID), wireless sensors, wireless telemetry and wireless standards-based testing such as IEEE 802.15.4
(Zigbee). Furthermore, researchers and students can use the tools’ flexibility to prototype next-generation communication systems such as multiple input, multiple output (MIMO). To learn about discounts for qualifying academic institutions, readers can visit www.ni.com/academic.

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