I have an application requiring high-speed (~1 GSPS), high-resolution (16-bit) data acquisition and for this reason I acquired the TSW54J60EVM and TSW14J56EVM. I only need ~1 GSPS sampling speed in short bursts of 8k samples or less at a externally triggered rate of up to 10 kHz (at ~1 GSPS this implies up to ~8 µs sample time with ~92 µs or greater dead time) and ultimately I would only need to return the average of up to 20,000 bursts. During development, there may be a desire to examine each burst. At a minimum, only one channel of acquisition is needed. I have previously used a LeCroy LC584A (oscilloscope with 8-bit resolution and 8 GSPS max) with two channels of acquisition where one channel is the trigger channel but it lacked resolution.
After using the HSDCPro software I could not find a simple way to perform this function besides collecting LOTS of data (including dead time), downloading it, and computer post-processing a 2GB/channel/second binary file. If there are alternate solutions please let me know.
I have limited experience in electronics development and minimal FPGA experience, so even the simple concept of adding signal averaging raises many issues. To perform signal averaging on the TSW14J56 it seems that reprogramming of the Altera Arria V GZ would be necessary and I have downloaded the FPGA Firmware from TI. To program the FPGA would require Quartus Prime which does allow starting with a 30-day trial and this still needs to be acquired. Based on the TSW14J56 EVM Megacore Firmware Design Document this is not your grandfather's ADC system. Knowledge of JESD204B, the Avalon interface, transceivers, etc. is needed to correctly program the Arria V GZ. It also seems to me that there are different implementation options, which include: 1) add each burst to a running sum and spit out the average after all bursts have been acquired; 2) store each burst consecutively in memory and get the average by post-processing in either the FPGA or on the computer. After all this, could the HSDCPro software still be used to download the data or would that also need to change? At this time I am reading up on many of these topics.
Ultimately, this development would also lead to custom hardware using the ADS54J60. Thankfully, the design packages from TI really help support this effort.
Guidance on alternate, best, and/or simplest approaches to this problem would be appreciated.
Regards, Greg
PS I would have also tagged this with TSW54J60EVM and TSW14J56EVM, but my tag choices terminated at ADC12040.
