The Spacelink^NGT TM/TC Interface & Processing Unit (TM/TC IPU) is one of the latest additions to the innovative SpacelinkNGT product line of Single-module based TM/TC equipment from Satellite Services B.V. of The Netherlands.

The TM/TC IPU can be used for a wide variety of standard (CCSDS/ECSS) TM/TC baseband solutions, as well as customer specific applications. Due to its high capacity FPGA based architecture, the TM/TC IPU provides a large amount of customisable I/O for interfacing at baseband level (RS-422 and/or LVDS). The TM/TC unit includes galvanic isolation, real-time hardware/firmware data processing and integrated LAN (Ethernet, TCP/IP) data exchange.

The amount and type of data processing that is performed can be configured depending on the application required. Typical examples include: raw data, programmable data blocks (with/without a sync code), CADU/VCDU/frame level data, (image) data patterns, BER/PRBS patterns etc.

From an electrical interface point of view, the TM/TC IPU is equipped with three HD-44 connectors each providing up to 20 I/O signals (differential). The signals can be configured in groups of four signals for receive/transmit for either RS-422 or LVDS interfaces. This allows for a maximum of 60 I/O signals to be supported in any given configuration.

All I/O lines are galvanically isolated directly after the interfacing circuitry, which makes the TM/TC IPU highly suitable for controlled simulation and test environments as typically found in the spacecraft assembly, integration & test domain. The galvanic isolation can also be useful in operational data interfacing and processing environments for interface adaptation, fault propagation and EMC reasons.

Each of the I/O lines is routed to a large capacity FPGA in which the actual functionality of the TM/TC IPU for a given application/model is determined. Other resources, directly available to the on-board processing electronics, include Dual-Port and SDRAM memory with configurable capacity (up to 112 MB) to support internal data buffering/loading and interfacing.

For customer specific applications and future expansion, the TM/TC IPU also supports the mounting of up to four daughter board modules. Examples of these type of modules are: IRIG-B/PPS timecode interfaces, subcarrier modulator/demodulator, discrete interfaces and High-speed data transfer interfaces.

The TM/TC IPU also features an on-board LAN interface (10/100 Base-T Ethernet) through which the unit can be controlled, configured and monitored. Also data can be exchanged with sustained rates of up to 20 Mbps. For high-speed applications, the on-board LVDS and optional gigabit serial link/fibre interface daughter board modules can be used.

The TM/TC IPU is implemented based on a single (VME form-factor) module which requires no connection other than DC power for operation. As such, flexible highly reliable and ruggedised system implementations can be made.

A standard TM/TC IPU is implemented as a 3U/19” rack mountable unit which provides all external interfaces and power. The modules are implemented to be removable from the back of the unit. The modules have LCD, LED and monitoring points at the front of the unit.

The standard 3U/19” unit includes one interface module, but also has sufficient space reserved to allow the unit to be expanded with either daughterboard modules or a second TM/TC IPU module.

For LAN interfacing, a range of software applications and libraries are available from SSBV to allow easy interfacing to the TM/TC IPU. This could be software either provided by SSBV, running on standard computer platforms or other third party/customer software. Next to this, standard LAN applications supported include FTP (server), HTTP (web server) and Telnet (server).

Given the wide variety of applications that can be supported by the TM/TC IPU, not all possible configurations can be described in this datasheet, please consult SSBV for more information.

To come...

Click on the image to download the datasheet.