November 11th 2008:

New Matrix PCIe Card by Great River Technology Enables Next-Generation ARINC 818 and HOTLink II Applications

Matrix PCIe card supports 500MB/s+ throughput and is perfect for high-performance ARINC 818 and HOTLink II I/O applications where uninterrupted throughput is needed. 

ALBUQUERQUE, NM. November 7, 2008 – Great River Technology today introduced the Matrix PCI express 4-lane video card for high-speed ARINC 818, FC-AV, and HOTLink II applications.  The Matrix series cards, which are capable of recording or transmitting video at 500MB/s+,  are built with Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA technology and can be configured for a variety of video formats and resolutions. The Matrix series cards were created for demanding mission-critical video applications and are ideal for digital video recorders, simulation and engineering labs, flight test programs and factory test equipment.

“With the number of new ARINC 818 applications at 3.187Gbps that are being kicked-off by our customers, a new generation card was needed to be able to support the 300MB/s of throughput required.  The Matrix series provides this platform for current applications up to 4.25Gbps, and allows for future growth to 6Gbps”, said Tim Keller, Director of Marketing.
 
“As the number of new ARINC 818 and HOTLink II applications increases, we needed a high-performance platform that we can use for the next five to seven years, and it looks like the PCIe bus will be prevalent in test equipment for the foreseeable future”, said Jon Alexander, Director of Engineering.

Matrix series boards will be used in systems to test PFD, MFD, HUD cockpit displays; visual and infrared imaging sensors; video concentrators; and map and chart systems.

Matrix series cards are available in two different versions: HOTLink or ARINC 818.
MTRX PCIe4 HL2V – Cypress HOTLink II frame grabber and video generator. 
MTRX PCIe4 A818 – ARINC 818 frame grabber, pattern generator and DVI converter.
For technical details, please visit http://www.greatrivertech.com/FCAV.html for ARINC 818, or http://www.greatrivertech.com/HL2V.html for HOTLink II.

September 3rd 2008:

New Great River Technology Analyzer Accelerates Serial Communication Implementations Of Cypress’s HOTLink® SERDES

HOTLink Serial Analyzer Simplifies Development and Debugging Of Wide Array of Commercial and Military Video and Data Applications

ALBUQUERQUE, NM and SAN JOSE, Calif., September 3, 2008 – Great River Technology today introduced the HOTLink® Serial Link Analyzer (HSLA), a tool to accelerate implementing and troubleshooting video systems using HOTLink and HOTLink II SERDES solutions from Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY). Great River Technology’s HSLA captures and analyzes 8B/10B traffic on a link, including all data and special characters. The analyzer works with systems with link speeds between 160 Mbps to 1.5 Gbps and covers a wide range of commercial and military video and data applications.

The HSLA was designed for engineers that need to “see” what is on the link as they develop new HOTLink applications, it is the first HOTLink II analyzer of its kind. “I was developing a complex transmitter protocol and needed a means to verify the output, but normal frame grabbers don’t capture all the framing characters, so I had to create a tool that I could use to verify my design, and then kept improving it. Other engineers started borrowing it to verify their designs, and before long it evolved into our HOTLink Serial Link Analyzer.” said John Stahoviak, systems engineer and HSLA developer.

“Great River Technology’s HOTLink Serial Link Analyzer will be a tremendous help to engineers and technicians developing and debugging systems that use Cypress’s HOTLink family of products,“ said James Lie, marketing manager for HOTLink products at Cypress.

Captured data traces can be easily searched using the included HSLAView software. Multiple trigger levels and trigger logic allow the tool to capture multiple layers of data for detailed analysis. The HSLA works with all 8B/10B encoded protocols such as Fiber Channel, DVB-ASI, and GigE. The HSLA not only captures and analyzes data, but can be used to replay a data stream back on to the link, and allows easy insertion of modified data or errors.

The Hotlink Protocol Analyzer is built on Great River Technology’s robust GRAVity product family. Using PCI 64bit/66Mhz technology, the hardware captures raw HOTLink data including all special characters. The capture depth is up to 2GB, which provides between 18s to 125s of capture, depending on the link speed. The HSLA offers a cost effective means to capture and analyze raw HOTLink data for a number of different PHY’s.

The HLSA features include: Easy to use, intuitive GUI

• Multiple level triggers settings
• Configurable recording depth from 1KB to 1GB
• Configurable Color coding of data or special characters
• Signal Splitter
• Recorded file playout for sensor simulation
• Viewing modes including hex, binary, ASCII, or HOTLink data codes
• HOTLink Video generator

The HSLA is available in two versions, HSLA_Rx which is a receiver and analyzer, and the HSLA Rx/Tx which adds data playout features for HOTLink system emulation.

For technical details, please visit http://www.greatrivertech.com/HSLA.html

For pricing, contact distributors or Great River Technology directly via sales@greatrivertech.com.

August 7th 2008:

Great River Technology Releases ARINC 818 Video IP Core for Xilinx and Altera FPGAs

Great River Technology released the first ARINC 818 IP core for aerospace and military video applications. The IP core targets both Xilinx and Altera FPGAs and drastically reduces the effort of implementing an ARINC 818 interface into new applications.

Albuquerque, NM (PRWEB) August 7, 2008 -- Great River Technology (GRT) announced today its new ARINC 818 (Avionics Digital Video Bus) IP core with support for Xilinx Virtex-2 Pro, Virtex-5, and Altera Stratix II GX FPGA devices. ARINC 818 is the new standard for high performance, low latency, uncompressed video for mission critical applications, such as military and commercial aerospace environments. "Since being released in January of 2007, the ARINC 818 video protocol is being implemented across a surprising number of military and commercial video applications, such as the Airbus A400M, the Boeing 787, and a number of regional jets," said Jon Alexander, CEO. "The GRT IP Core will help engineers to quickly incorporate an ARINC 818 interface into their products without a large investment in time or engineering."

The ARINC 818 core is compliant with the latest ARINC specification and provides flexibility for implementing and tuning a variety of video formats and timing classifications. The IP core is targeted at cameras, IR sensors, video processors, avionics, and cockpit displays such as MFDs, PFDs, and HUDs. The core uses Xilinx Rocket IO or Altera GX transceivers to achieve ARINC 818 interfaces up to 4.25 Gbps. The GRT IP Core will help engineers to quickly incorporate an ARINC 818 interface into their products without a large investment in time or engineering. GRT licenses the ARINC 818 core using a SignOnceTM agreement. Additionally, VHDL source code and a complete Aerospace Certification Package may also be purchased to support DO-254 qualification. GRT also offers development boards, design support and engineering services for customization of the core. For technical details, please visit www.greatrivertech.com/ipcore.html For pricing, contact distributors or Great River Technology directly via sales @ greatrivertech.com.