The BxBApp demo

The BxBApp

The BxBApp is a standalone demo that is available here for either the RealDigital RFSoC4x2 board (for academic use only) or for the Xilinx ZCU111 board.

The app functions as an oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, and network analyzer.  It can also produce simple test waveforms.  Another use of it is to characterize the ADCs and DACs on the FPGA board, as the demo's processing has higher accuracy than the accuracy of the ADCs and DACs.

The app runs entirely on the board, with no attached PC necessary.  It can work with an attached touchscreen monitor, or with a monitor and mouse, or by connecting the board to a network and connecting to it with a web browser.

The app shows off Bit by Bit Signal Processing's BxBFFT and also its upcoming Polyphase Filter Bank (PFB) channelizer product.  The app processes ADC data in real time at 2X oversampling with greater than 100dB dynamic range.  

The version for the RealDigital RFSoC4x2 FPGA board uses a BxBFFT with 96000 real input points and 48000 complex output points, processing 12 real samples per clock, meeting timing at up to 550MHz FPGA clock rates.  This translates to a 6.6Gsps ADC, above the 5Gsps spec.  The implementation supports variable sampling rates, from 500MHz up to beyond 5GHz.  On the RFSoC4x2 app, transfer functions can be taken, but only from one ADC input to another.

The version for the Xilinx ZCU111 FPGA board uses a 98304-real-point to  49152-complex-point BxBFFT operating at 8 complex samples per clock.  This version doesn't support variable sampling rates, but does support transfer functions from DAC outputs to ADC inputs, as well as ADC to ADC.

The BxBApp turns these boards into useful lab instruments.  You can characterize the ADCs and DACs, measure and match cable and filter delays, measure filter magnitude and phase characteristics, generate sine and random noise signals, and observe signals in time or frequency.  

This app can be ported to other boards.  Ports exist to the ZCU208, HTG-ZRF8, and HTG-ZRF-HH boards, but they are not currently freely available.  Contact us if there is a business case for making a port.

ZCU111 Download Link:       BxB_Demo_1_v2.0.5.zip           MD5 Checksum:   16d59bcf8f1ba40679f15bb62a9d008d

RFSoC4x2 release link (updated to version 2.0), for academic use only: RFSoC4x2 BxBApp