Prerequisites

What you need, depends on what you are trying to do. As a minimum, you need to start out with:

Hardware prerequisites

Quad-MxFE platform

1. The AD9081-based evaluation board: ADQUADMXFE1EBZ

2. An FPGA carrier platform: VCU118. See supported carriers.

3. 12V, 9A+ wall supply and power cable (included in the kit)

4. FMC+ Extender (included in the kit)

5. 2x 6” MMCX-to-MMCX cables (included in the kit)

6. 3x Board Standoffs (included in the kit)

7. Fan/heat sinks (included in the kit) — install prior to first use per Fan Installation Directions

8. 500 MHz reference oscillator or waveform generator (~0 dBm)

9. 2x USB Micro cables (UART + JTAG)

10. Ethernet cable

    NOTE: do not use the Ethernet cable that comes with the VCU118 board. It is a crossover cable and will not work with the platform

11. 50 Ohm SMA cables — as needed

12. (Optional) USB to Ethernet dongle for direct connection

With Calibration Board (ADQUADMXFE-CAL)

The following are needed only if using the optional 16Tx/16Rx Calibration Board (sold separately):

1. ADQUADMXFE-CAL Calibration Board

   • Includes 12V power supply, PMOD ribbon cable, male-to-male 0.1” 12 pin header, board standoffs, and 2x 3” MMCX-MMCX cables

2. 32x MMCX-MMCX cables to connect between Quad MxFE Board & Calibration Board (2 provided with the ADQUADMXFE-CAL kit, 30 additional required)

   • https://www.samtec.com/products/rf316-03sp1-03sp1-0100

Software prerequisites

1. Xilinx Vivado/Vitis (includes XSCT for programming the FPGA)

2. A UART terminal (PuTTY/Tera Term/Minicom, etc.) with baud rate 115200 (8N1)

3. IIO Oscilloscope

   • Latest IIO Oscilloscope release

   • Latest Libiio release

4. (Optional) MATLAB 2019b or 2020a — see MATLAB Control Overview

Note

ADI does not offer FPGA carrier platforms for sale or loan; getting one yourself is the normal part of development or evaluation.