04/02/2007 -- eeProductCenter -- Austin, Texas—Mindready announced the latest software-defined radio toolkit release, the Universal Radio Tester (URT) Version 3.0, aimed at improving test systems for audio, video, navigation and automotive applications.
The URT is used for generating analog and digital RF signals based on National Instruments' PXI hardware and NI LabVIEW and NI TestStand software. Engineers can use the URT to both design and test radio receivers for terrestrial and satellite-supported broadcasting. The URT characterizes the quality of a given radio receiver by analyzing the frequency content of its signal.
The URT hardware consists of a PXI chassis, an embedded PXI dual-core controller and the National Instruments PXI-5671 2.7 GHz RF vector signal generator. Optionally, the PXI-4461 data acquisition module and the PXI-5661 2.7 GHz RF vector signal analyzer with a digital downconverter can also be used for audio analysis or RF recording. Design product validation engineers benefit from accurate and comprehensive tools to validate their designs, while manufacturing facilities use URTs for final testing.
The URT Version 3.0 can be easily upgraded as new standards are released. With this release, Mindready is building on the existing URT 2.0 functionality, which is used for generating and analyzing radio signals such as AM, FM, single and three-channel RDS, XM, SIRIUS, HD Radio (IBOC) and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB).
Mindready has also developed several new toolkits in Version 3.0, including the RF Recorder and the RF Playback software toolkits, NTSC-PAL analog video, GPS 1-Channel Toolkit, and the Traffic Monitoring and Control (TMC) and Data Radio Channel (DARC) toolkits for the Japanese market.
The RF Recorder has the ability to record any RF signals between 500 kHz and 2.7 GHz with a bandwidth of 6.8 MHz. This is a very compact RF record and playback system designed for RF drive tests and field measurements, which uses external, low-cost storage capacity that can record hours of test drive. Mindready also offers a library of RF signals for its RF Playback software toolkit.
National Instruments, 1 (888) 280-7645, www.ni.com.
Mindready Solutions Inc., 1 (877) 636-1394 or 1 (514) 339-1394, www.mindready.com.
--Ismini Scouras--
