ADLINK Technology has released Spectra CX4, a modeling tool for software defined radio built around the SCA 4.1 standard. The company announced its availability in San Jose, California, on December 13, 2017.
In short, Spectra CX4 is a model driven development tool. Its job is to simplify, speed up and check much of the work that goes into SCA 4.1 projects.
Steve Cammish, ADLINK’s senior vice president of software engineering, said the tool gives teams a solid base. That applies to teams adopting SCA 4.1 for the first time, as well as those moving up from the older SCA 2.2.2.
Why SCA matters
SCA, the Software Communications Architecture, is an open framework for radios. It sets a standard way for a radio to load, configure and manage waveform applications. Because it separates waveform software from the hardware below it, the same code can move between radios. As a result, teams avoid the cost of rewriting waveforms.
Unlike SCA 2.2.2, version 4.1 brings gains in three areas. It offers better performance and portability, lower development cost and backward compatibility.
Spectra CX4 checks SCA 4.1 compliance at the architecture level. It then generates correct-by-construction artifacts, namely XML descriptor files and C++ source code. SCA and non-SCA software can also be built side by side, joined early and tested in depth. ADLINK says this model-based method cuts development risk.
The promised gains are faster time to market, lower costs, better software quality and tighter compliance for waveform and platform code. In practice, users can do four things with it:
- Model SCA 4.1 systems, including applications, nodes, platforms and deployments.
- Validate designs early and keep checking them through the cycle.
- Generate correct-by-construction SCA artifacts.
- Develop component behavior code with the model driven approach.
The tool joins the wider Spectra family. That line includes Spectra DTP, a wideband baseband and RF development and test platform, and Spectra CF, a compact off-the-shelf SCA core framework. It also covers Spectra CDB, a middleware stack that runs across FPGA, DSP and GPP parts. Finally, Spectra Radio Services and Devices offers standard SCA components that implement APIs from the Joint Tactical Networking Center.
ADLINK serves military, aerospace and government markets, among others. It has R&D in the U.S., Germany, Taiwan and China and trades on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under code 6166.