Transmitter outputs provide an output signal of 800 mV p-p while receiver inputs equalize greater than 300 m of high quality cable at 270 Mbps.

DVB-ASI transmission occurs at 270 Mbps, but the maximum data rate is approximately 213 Mbps. Data rates on the order of kbps have been successfully transmitted and received using the DVB Master Cards. Theoretically, the ASI bitrate can be 1 bps or lower if desired.

The DVB Master Cards can handle data transfers at rates up to about 213 Mbps. In practice, the actual data transfer rate may be significantly lower than that. Generally, it is not a problem to have multiple DVB Master cards in one system but the total data transfer rate required by all channels will dictate the performance requirements that the system must meet. Other considerations such as the sustained data transfer rate of the disk drive (if the application is reading to / writing from disk) and other devices connected to the same PCI bus should also be considered.

SDI data transfers occur at 270 Mbps per channel. While it is theoretically possible to have more than one card in a given system, in practice the system will dictate the limitation on the number of channels which can operate at a time. For example, if the application requires reading/writing to disk, the disk performance will need to be able to handle the sustained data transfer rate.

The card label represents the week, batch number and year of manufacture as well as the hardware revision and PCB revision. The Serial number is of the form ABCxxx where ABC is a 3 letter code to indicate the model and xxx is a 3 digit serial number Eg. 0181706A100S/N DLP109

• 01 - Week of manufacture (of the specified year - see below)
• 817 - Batch number
• 06 - Year of manufacture
• A - Hardware revision
• 100 - PCB revision (1.00)
• DLP - Model name (DLP = DVB FD/LP)
• 109 - Serial number of the specific card

In the above example, DLP109 is a DVB Master FD/LP card was part of Batch Number 817 which was built in week 1 of 2006 (with Hardware Revision A and PCB revision 1.00).

When determining the optimal number and size of buffers, it is important to note that an interrupt is generated every time a buffer is filled.

Therefore, the size of buffers will be a function of the data rate and the desired number of interrupts in a given time interval. E.g. for 100 interrupts/second for SDI data (270 Mbps):

Buffer size = (data rate) / (interrupt rate) = (270 * 10^6) / 100 = 2.7 Mbits or 337.5 Kbytes

The number of buffers should be high enough to account for the worst case time it takes to handle the data contained in a buffer. E.g. assuming it takes 10 seconds to store 1 buffer worth of data the required number of buffers from above would be:

Buffer number = (data rate) * time / (buffer size) = (270 * 10^6) * (10) / (2.7 * 10^6) = 1000 = (interrupt rate) * time = 100 * 10 = 1000

The sector size and packet size are additional factors to consider when determining the optimal buffer size. Buffers that are a multiple of the sector size (usually 512 Bytes) allow for faster operation when reading from (or writing to) file systems. Using Direct I/O in Windows, for example, requires that the buffer size be a multiple of sector size.

NOTE: Sector size is a disk drive/controller unit and should not be confused with cluster size (which is a file system unit).

Similarly, buffers that are a multiple of packet size prevent partial packets from being written at the end of the file. Another benefit is that analysis programs can refer to the same buffer locations to look at packets rather than realigning buffers. This reduces the CPU cycle time and increases performance.

To calculate the buffer size, take the product of the packet size and the sector size and divide by the greatest common factor of the two. The optimal buffer size will be a multiple, k, of this value (where k can be chosen such that the buffer size will generate the required interrupt rate as per above). Eg. For a sector size of 512 Bytes and 188 byte packets:

Buffer size = k * (packet size) *(sector size) greatest_common_factor (packet size, sector size) = 4 * [(188)*(512) / 4 ] = 96,256 (or 0x17800 in hex) for k = 4

The latest version of firmware for all cards as well as the release versions of drivers, applications and systems are available from the Drivers link under Newest Versions.

No, the SDI Master does not perform any editing on the ancillary data including the embedded audio. The SDI Master is designed to transport the SDI stream from the SDI input to the PCI bus of the computer but does not perform any editing on the stream itself. Editing of the stream, including modifying the ancillary data, could be supported by the application.

Appended timestamps are added to the end of each packet and are in a PCR format. Prepended timestamps are added to the start of each packet and are a relative value based on an on-board counter.

Prepended timestamps, unlike the appended timestamps, can be used for re-transmitting the stream. The transmit channel uses the prepended timestamps when packet release is enabled in the application.

The transmit channel normally relies on the stuffing parameters supplied to it by the application to transmit at the correct rate. If no stuffing parameters are specified, the transmit channel will transmit at the full data rate (about 213 Mbps). The exception to this is when prepended timestamps have been added by the receive channel and packet release is enabled on the transmit channel. In this case, the transmit channel will still try to transmit at the full data rate but will not release packets until the packet is 'matured' (when an internal counter on the device matches the timestamp value), effectively matching the incoming bitrate seen at the receive channel.

There is no need to increase the timestamp value to account for processing time as the timestamp value is relative to timestamps of previous packets. An internal counter is loaded by the timestamp value of the first packet which is transmitted. All timestamped packets after that point will be released when the counter equals the timestamp value of that packet.

The recommended requirements are for one card running at maximum ASI or SDI rate. If multiple cards are installed in the system, the system specification will need to be adjusted accordingly)

1. DVB Full Duplex card (DVB Master FD or equivalent):
   1. Intel Pentium 2.67 GHz processor (or equivalent) with 1 GB RAM and 800 MHz Front Side Bus.
   2. Four Hard Drives: 1 for the Operating system; 3 for Data at Minimum of 120 GB free space. RAID and SATA Drive preferred.
2. DVB multiple input/output cards. (4 in, 2in/2out, 1in/3out, 4 out)
   1. Intel Pentium 2.67 GHz processor (or equivalent) with 1 GB RAM and 800 Mhz Front Side Bus.
   2. 1 Hard Drive for Operating System.
   3. Eight Hard Drives RAID for Data storage: at Minimum of 120 GB each. (Required if all 4 inputs are saving ASI at full data)
3. SDI Full Duplex card (SDI Master FD or equivalent):
   1. Intel Pentium 3.00 Ghz processor (or equivalent) with 1 GB RAM and 800 Mhz Front Side Bus.
   2. Four Hard Drives: 1 for Operating System; 3 for Data at Minimum of 160 GB each. Must RAID the drivers to save data.
4. SDI Quad cards
   1. Intel Pentium 4.00 Ghz process (or equivalent) with 2 GB RAM and 1Ghz Front side bus.
   2. 1 Hard Drive for the Operating Systems.
   3. Ten Hard Drives RAID for Data storage: at Minimum of 120 GB each. (Required if all 4 inputs are saving SDI data)

Yes, the SDI Master card will pass through the ancillary data (including the embedded audio). The embedded audio is only supported for 10-bit mode, however, as the audio samples will be truncated in 8- bit mode.