Common Fundamental Technologies

Anritsu’s test and measurement instruments continuously offers the highest level of functionality and performance, which is leading-edge, in order to contribute to the development of 5G and other communications that link regions and societies worldwide. FPGA design and software design technologies for supporting large-scale measurement circuits and fast processing are vital common fundamental technologies for evaluating communication systems, which require increasing complexity and higher speeds, in step with the evolution of communication technology. Anritsu continuously develops test and measurement instruments by incorporating leading-edge devices and design methods.

FPGA Design

For test and measurement instruments, it is necessary, for example, to analyze ultra-high speed data communication transmission protocols at the bitwise level, without errors and in real time. The core component for achieving this is the field programmable gate array (FPGA).

Not only a large-scale FPGA with millions of logic cells but also the use of systems on a chip (SoC) has been increasing that integrates scores of Gbit/s high-speed interfaces and memory, analog circuits, CPU cores, and other components.

Anritsu’s test and measurement instruments consistently utilize the world’s leading-edge FPGAs and SoCs, and require knowledge of digital and analog circuits, software, and other areas, as well as architects with the ability to create designs that maximize each characteristic.

Also, in addition to the hardware description languages, VHDL and Verilog, recently we also conduct designs using high-level synthesis, such as the C/C++ programming language. We aim to design large-scale, high-speed FPGAs efficiently and in a shorter amount of time, by describing the design at a function level, such as through architecture and algorithms, rather than the digital circuit level, such as through logic and storage elements.

Software Design

Software (SW) of test and measurement instruments differs from the application software used in smartphones and personal computers. Real-time control of the hardware (HW), an intuitive user interface (UI) to display measurement and test results and configure settings, and software quality that ensures long-term stable operation are all necessary to realize the features and performance of measuring instruments.

Achieving real-time control requires the programming skills to utilize a variety of real-time operating systems (RTOS) and the capability of computer architects, while the UI requires the skills to develop SW for Windows, Linux, and other operating systems, and the capabilities of system engineers (SE) with an understanding of measuring instrument use cases.

In addition, recently measuring instruments are created by leveraging multiple skills and various types of knowledge, such as knowledge of databases and the utilization of cloud computing (e.g. AWS) for managing large volumes of data and conducting remote measurement and testing, and software engineering and quality management to ensure quality. Moreover, the demands on measuring instruments in the industry of leading-edge communications are constantly becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex.

In order to promptly meet these demands, we are taking measures such as the introduction of agile development processes and program test automation tools.