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Super I/O PC/104: Embedded Communications Board

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Super I/O PC/104 board Click here to see full-size pictures.

Super I/O PC/104 Data Flow Diagram
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Overview

The Super I/O PC/104 board provides a wide variety of I/O options, including network, telephony, and several types of serial I/O. In addition, the board also accepts modules with Texas Instruments C54xx, C55xx, or C67xx DSP processors and modules with 16-bit audio, speech, or other analog I/O. The Super I/O board is suitable for defense electronics, embedded telecom, Internet infrastructure, or data acquisition and measurement applications where space is at a premium.

Applications for the Super I/O board include embedded LAN and WAN communications, measurement and data acquisition, base-station processing, VoIP (voice-over Internet protocol) networking functions, VoDSL (voice-over DSL), Internet routing, multiple-channel speech or audio code / decode (e.g. G.7xx, GSM, or MELP speech compression and MP3 audio compression), modem banks, echo cancellation, and speech recognition.

The modular expansion approach used by the Super I/O board is particularly well suited to providing a scalable solution for defense electronics, telecom, Internet equipment, and data acquisition/measurement applications that require multiple DSP devices. For example, channel capacity is highly configurable and upgradeable.

The Super I/O board is a PC/104 format board, fully compliant with PC/104 specification v2.3 in dimensions and mechanical considerations.

PC/104 Base Board Feature Summary

High-speed host interface

Dual RS-232 serial ports

Quad RS-422/423 synchronous serial ports

USB interface

Quad T1/E1 telephone interface (integrated framer / transceiver)

10/100 Mbps Ethernet controller with integrated transceiver

Supports mutichannel analog I/O interface with SigSD4 Audio Module or other analog I/O modules installed

Up to four (4) module sites for C54xx or C55xx processors and analog or audio I/O

Flexible onboard TDM stream routing, via programmable PLD switch matrix under host software control

Global Bus expansion header, with parallel digital I/O

1149.1 JTAG header

Supported by DirectDSP® software

Application example of Super I/O board with DSP
modules installed. Click to see blow-up picture and captions.

Specifications and Data Sheets

Telephony T1/E1 Interface

The Rev. C Super I/O board contains a Dallas Semiconductor DS2155 device with integrated framer/transceiver that provide a T1/E1 interface available on a header at the board edge. The Rev. D card contains a PMC-Sierra PM4354 device with integrated framers and transceivers that provides a quad T1/E1 interface at headers on the board edge. Up to 96 data streams may be processed by the module sites.

Command, control, and status information is available to the host interface, and all TDM data is routed to the DSP module sites, via the programmable PLD switch matrix.

Network Interface

The Rev. D Super I/O board contains a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet controller with PHY signals available on a header at the board edge. Rev. C boards do not contain the Ethernet controller.

For VoIP applications, Packet data may be output to the network from DSPs after speech codec, RTP, and jitter processing.

The Ethernet controller is accessible from both host and module sites

Serial I/O Interface

The Super I/O board provides four (4) synchronous serial channels and two (2) RS-232 asynchronous serial channels. All serial I/O signals are available at board edge; routing is performed using onboard CPLD logic, and software programmable. Levels are software-programmable for either RS-422 or RS-423 (balanced or unbalanced).

The Rev. D version of the Super I/O board also includes a single channel USB interface.

Analog I/O

Combined with SigC54xx or SigC55xx processor modules, the SigSD4-SODIMM Audio Module offers multichannel 16-bit sigma-delta analog I/O as an integrated component in the modular solution. Audio Module features include:

sigma-delta converters provide sharp anti-alias and reconstruction filter roll-off, and nearly ideal linear phase response
sampling rates and filter cutoff frequencies are software programmable; all channels are sampled simultaneously
TDM (time division multiplex) serial output allows distribution of multichannel audio data to one or more DSP processors; audio data can be replicated among processors, or distributed uniformly, as needed
analog input/output signals are routed directly to the module using a small-outline Mictor 38-pin connector that supports individually shielded conductors.

DirectDSP® Software Support

The Super I/O board is supported by Signalogic off-the-shelf software products designed for real-time processing code development, including:

DirectDSP® is a Windows library that provides low-level and high-level calls for user-defined C/C++, Visual Basic, MATLAB®, or LabVIEW®programs. The DirectDSP API includes low-level hardware control functions such as reset/run/hold, register access, block memory transfer, COEFF executable file download, etc. High-level functions include waveform file acquire/generate, continuous signal generation and execution of any arbitrary Hypersignal DSP or math function. DirectDSP includes strip-chart recorder, digital oscilloscope and digital tape recorder demo program and source code examples.

DirectDSP software provides Plug-N-Play compatible Win9x and WinXP drivers.

DirectDSP software also includes a telecom extension API which allows access to onboard logic functions, TDM routing / switch table functions, and the T1/E1 and network interfaces.

VDS Software Support

VDS® (Voice-over-packet Development System) software is an integrated environment that includes numerous development, analysis, measurement, test debug, and simulation functions for developing VoIP and VoATM systems.

The VDS environment combines both simulation and real-time operating modes. It includes support for several types of off-the-shelf DSP hardware, including SigC54xx cards and systems, InterWorks multiprocessor telecom modules, and Texas Instruments® DSK boards.

VDS test and measurement features include both packet analysis and packet impairment. Packets may deliberately be impaired with a variety of error types in order to debug and measure performance system components such as jitter buffer and echo canceller. The VDS environment and architecture supports operation as a fully automated test system.

Individual voice and audio processing components within VDS may be configured either as DSP software (DSP Mode, running on supported DSP hardware), or as host PC software components (Host Mode). Within the VDS user-interface, software components can be easily configured as DSP Mode or Host Mode in various combinations. This flexible and interactive configuration facilitates both development and analysis phases of VoIP and VoATM projects.

VDS includes network-side and telephony-side configuration and management. Voice software settings include CODEC type, echo canceller, jitter buffer, silence suppression, real-time parameters, and packet impairment test and measurement options. Voice software selections made from the GUI directly set properties in the Telogy voice software running in real-time on the C54xx DSP devices.

Note that if the Super I/O is used as a development system or in development mode, it must be plugged into a passive carrier card.