Pentek announced rackmount additions to RF/IF signal recorders

Pentek Inc.announced rackmount additions to its Talon® RF/IF signal recording and playback systems. The Model RTS 2707 rackmount system, and Model RTR 2747 rugged rackmount system, offer recording and playback of RF/IF signals up to 700 MHz with signal bandwidths up to 200 MHz. The systems feature 500 MHz 12-bit A/Ds or 400 MHz 14-bit A/Ds and an 800 MHz 16-bit D/A. Pentek’s SystemFlow® software allows turnkey operation through a graphical user interface (GUI), while the SystemFlow application programming interface (API) allows easy integration of the recording software into custom applications.

The RTS 2707 is configured in a 4U 19" rack-mountable chassis with up to 20 hot-swappable magnetic hard drives for up to 20 terabytes of real-time data storage space, front panel USB ports and I/O connectors on the rear panel. The RTS 2707 is best suited for commercial applications requiring high-data storage capability.

The RTR 2747 is configured in a rugged 4U 19" rack-mountable chassis, with up to 24 hot-swap solid state drives (SSDs) with combined capacity to 11.5 TB, front panel USB ports and I/O connectors on the rear panel. The fast read/write speeds of the SSDs allow the RTR 2747 to sustain 4 GB/s recording rates across the full storage capacity. Because SSDs operate reliably under conditions of shock and vibration, the RTR 2747 performs well in ground, shipborne and airborne environments. The drives can be easily removed or exchanged during or after a mission to retrieve recorded data.

“These systems are intended to digitize the growing class of wideband signals and stream the data to disk in real time,” said Rodger Hosking, vice president of Pentek. “Because this technology is moving so fast, our greatest value is in maximizing performance and wrapping it into robust and flexible solutions. These systems are truly best in class from all aspects.”

Recording System Selections

The RTS 2707 and RTR 2747 are scalable to accommodate multiple chassis to increase channel counts and aggregate data rates. All recorder chassis are connected via Ethernet and can be controlled from a single GUI either locally or from a remote PC. Multiple RAID levels, including 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and 50, provide a choice for the required level of redundancy. Optional GPS time and position stamping allows the user to record this critical signal information.

A/D sampling rates, DDC decimations and bandwidths, D/A sampling rates, and DUC interpolations are among the selectable system parameters that provide a fully programmable system capable of recording and reproducing a wide range of signals.

Available I/O in both models includes audio and VGA video, RS-232/422/485 serial, multiple USB 2.0, multiple USB 3.0, and dual Gigabit Ethernet connections.

Ease of Operation

The built-in Windows 7 Professional workstation with an Intel Core i7 processor gives the user total flexibility in routing data to various drives, networks and I/O channels. Also, the user can install post-processing and analysis tools on the system to operate on the recorded data. The RTS 2707 and RTR 2747 are fully supported with Pentek’s SystemFlow software for system control and turn-key operation. The software provides a graphical user interface with point-and-click configuration management and can store custom configurations for single-click setup. The software also includes a virtual oscilloscope and signal analyzer to monitor signals before, during and after data collection.