Pentek’s Jade 54851 3U VPX Board Delivers Ultra‑Fast Optical & RF I/O with Xilinx Kintex UltraScale FPGA

Pentek has unveiled the newest member of its Jade line of 3U VPX boards, the Model 54851. Powered by Xilinx’s Kintex UltraScale FPGA, the board delivers uncompromising performance for high‑speed optical and RF applications.

The Model 54851 is equipped with two 500 MHz 12‑bit analog‑to‑digital converters, each paired with a programmable multiband digital downconverter (DDC). It also features one digital upconverter (DUC) that drives two 800 MHz 16‑bit digital‑to‑analog converters, giving designers a complete, high‑throughput signal chain on a single module.

Its VPX backplane supports a trio of I/O options that cater to the most demanding interconnect requirements:

• Option -110 – Optical connections based on VITA 66.5 (draft), with blind‑mate MT optical connectors that have fixed contacts on the plug‑in module and floating contacts on the backplane.
• Option -111 – RF connections based on ANSI/VITA 67.2, featuring multi‑position blind‑mate analog connectors with SMPM contacts.
• Option -112 – RF connections based on ANSI/VITA 67.3 type C, using multi‑position blind‑mate analog connectors with SMPM contacts that are spring‑loaded on the backplane. This design allows greater movement and accommodates larger‑diameter cables for improved performance.

Pentek plans to add higher‑density optical and RF options as the relevant standards mature. The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium is already defining new VITA 67.3 apertures that will extend the board’s connectivity envelope.

The board can host a range of Kintex UltraScale FPGAs to match the processing load of any application. The entry‑level KU035 offers 1,700 DSP slices, while the high‑performance KU115 delivers 5,520 DSP slices, making it ideal for heavy‑lift tasks such as modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, encryption/decryption, and channelization.

Beyond FPGA logic, the Model 54851 ships with a full multi‑board clock and sync engine, generous DDR4 memory, native PCI Express Gen 3 connectivity, and optional high‑bandwidth links that feed the FPGA directly for custom digital I/O.

These features make the Model 54851 an excellent high‑performance interface for the high‑frequency or intermediate‑frequency ports of communications and radar systems.

Pentek’s Navigator Design Suite is built to integrate seamlessly with the Jade architecture and Xilinx’s Vivado Design Suite. It offers an end‑to‑end, plug‑and‑play workflow for IP and control‑software development. The suite is split into two components: the Navigator FDK (FPGA Design Kit) for embedding custom IP into Pentek designs, and the Navigator BSP (Board Support Package) for creating host applications. Developers can work efficiently at the API level for software or use an intuitive graphical interface for IP integration. The Navigator BSP runs on both Windows and Linux platforms.