Unitronix announces an exciting new and powerful PCIe module for ARINC429 test applications. Based on the AIM 3rd Generation Common Core design the APE429-x is packed with features to enhance your experience when analysing, testing, simulating and monitoring ARINC429 databuses.

4, 8 or 16 channel modules are available. Each channel is software programmable for Receive (Rx) or Transmit (Tx) mode and high/ low bit rates. Full pin compatibility offers a smooth transition for APX/ API429-x (PCI/ PCI-X cards) to the APE429-x PCIe cards. Software compatibility on API (Application Programming Interface) level to AIM’s family of PCI/PCI-X, PC/104-Plus, USB, PC-Card/ExpressCard, PMC, cPCI/PXI, VME and VXI ARINC429 cards saves your investment and re-use.

The new design uses a high speed FPGA with integrated PCI-Express bus (1x Lane/2.5Gb/s) and IRIG-B Time Encoder/ Decoder. Reduced power consumption means higher reliability with the use of very low power ARM-based processors and the latest FPGA technology.

Integrated in the cards are eight (Avionic Level) General Purpose Discrete I/O (GPIO) signals which can be used to generate strobe outputs or to sample external digital inputs.

Multiple RISC processors with 128MB of Global RAM and 128MB of ASP RAM ensure real time performance and low latency on all channels working at the full bandwidth.

A unique design feature is the onboard ASP (Application Support Processor) having a SOC (System on Chip) hardware device running under Linux OS. This offers a scalable and flexible platform for hosting various real-time onboard applications. The IRIG-B Time Encoder/ Decoder provides a sinusoidal output and ‘free wheeling’ mode for time tag synchronisation on the system level when using one or more AIM cards.