Alereon Enables Custom Hardware and Software Development

Overview

Alereon provides tools to address the development and evaluation of Wireless USB products in a wide range of applications. The AL5600-DVK Device Development Kit, in conjunction with the AL5600-SDK Software Development Kit, enables porting of Alereon device drivers and Applications Programming Interface (API) to a target embedded processor running a user-specified operating system. The Radio Evaluation Tool (RET) permits evaluation and measurement of key radio specifications for the worldwide band groups 1, 3, 4, and 6.

AL5600-DVK Hardware Development Kit (DVK)

Alereon's Wireless USB device development kit (DVK) provides the hardware and software tools to integrate the Alereon AL5000 chipsets' software drivers into an embedded platform. The DVK also enables custom Wireless USB applications to be developed. The development kit includes the AL5606 Multi-interface Device Development Board, device side adapters/cables, and the AL5600-SDK Software Development Kit. Multiple interfaces to the embedded processor are supported including SDIO, CF/high-speed 16-bit parallel, and USB ULPI. The AL5600-DVK-03 option includes a PDA HW platform with pre-integrated Alereon software running on Windows Mobile 5.0 over SDIO.

Provides both host and device side hardware for development and evaluation purposes Based on the Alereon AL5300 BBP/MAC Includes Alereon's wireless USB Software Developer's Kit Facilitates quick development cycles, reducing time-to-market

AL5600-SDK Software Development Kit (SDK)

Alereon's Wireless USB Software Development Kit (SDK) includes a complete Applications Programming Interface (API); tested software drivers for SDIO, parallel/CF, and USB interfaces; sample applications; and complete documentation. With the API, a kernel abstraction layer allows simple porting of the software to other operating systems. A hardware abstraction layer allows simple porting of the bus drivers to new bus controllers. The documentation describes bus commands for porting software to custom operating systems.

Complete API software Driver source code for SDIO, CF/parallel, and USB interfaces OS support for Linux, Windows CE, and Windows XP/Vista Abstraction layers support simple porting to new OS and new bus controllers

Radio Evaluation Tool (RET)

The Radio Evaluation Tool (RET) is a powerful yet very flexible design validation tool created for use with Alereon-based Ultra Wideband (UWB) products running on any standard Windows XP- based PC. Through GPIB-controlled step attenuators, a user can run automated Packet Error Rate (PER) tests that plot real-time receive sensitivity curves on-screen (PER vs. attenuated received power). A user can then select any or all of the 8 PHY data rates (53–480 Mbps) in combination with any or all of the 10 TFC channels in each of the worldwide Band Groups (1–6). Additional parameters such as packet size, packet count, and inter-frame spacing can be selected while controlling transmit power. Graphical or tabular test results can be displayed on-screen or stored in a .cvs file. The test set-up configuration files can also be generated to save and repeat a user's custom selected test parameters. RET can also be used during regulatory testing to continuously transmit packets while adjusting the transmit power output. RET can also display real-time received MAC throughput vs time to facilitate real-world range testing.

Intuitive user interface Automated test suites Real-time plotting of results Supports all TFCs 1–10 and all PHY data rates (53-480 Mbps) in Band Groups 1,3,4,6 Facilitates short validation cycles, decreasing time-to-market