Opal Kelly Launches Experts Program – FPGA FrontPanel Pros Expedite Development Projects
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Portland, Oregon – Opal Kelly, a leading producer of powerful FPGA USB 2.0 modules that provide essential device-to-computer interconnect, today announced the Opal Kelly Experts Program. This program introduces Opal Kelly customers to qualified Opal Kelly expert consultants to augment in-house expertise and bandwidth for completing FPGA and FrontPanel-based development.
The consultants in the Opal Kelly Expert Program have been selected for their expertise in HDL, FPGA, and software design. The program is designed to be a win-win, simply introducing customers to the expert consultants. Opal Kelly does not take a commission or any fee for connecting people.
Three seasoned experts have been selected as the founding consultants for the program:
Kevin Smith is an experienced digital design engineer and system architect with 12 years of Xilinx experience and a track record of creative uses of hardware and software to solve problems. Most recently, he has been consulting on low-cost military radar projects and has an active DOD secret security clearance. He has also consulted on digital video, high-speed data capture cards using the PCI bus, and written interfaces for many standard devices: DDR memory controllers, flash, I2C, etc. Kevin also does VHDL and Verilog training and design consulting to enable the success of others.
“With Opal Kelly boards, we have created mini-platforms for data capture and replaying scenarios that are impossible to reproduce in the field, as our tests involve moving vehicles, noise, projectiles, and temperature. Our Opal Kelly emulation systems can log these variables and then re-play them into the system to test various algorithms.”
Klaus Zietlow is a one-stop shop for electronics design, analog, digital, and mixed signals. He has worked on everything from high-speed, high-precision analog to FPGA embedded multiprocessor designs to ultra low-power radios. Mr. Zietlow has a fully-equipped lab and knows how to use it: everything from a 7-digit voltage calibrator to a 4GHz DSO, curve tracer to real-time spectrum analyzer, reflow oven to thermal imaging camera, and an inspection microscope to time interval analyzer. Zietlow specializes in circuit design and debugging, system analysis and optimization, VHDL, Verilog, DSP, C, C++, and LabVIEW.
“I have recently used Opal Kelly modules to prototype a production board for an Agilent DNA Microarray scanner. The purpose of the board is to acquire data from two photo multiplier tubes (PMT) that are at the receiving end of a laser fluorescence scanner. The PMT signals are amplified and sampled using a quad 14-bit / 44 MSPS ADC and sent over LVDS to the XEM3005 at 622 Mbps. The prototype used LabVIEW to control the design.”
Rainer Malzbender has been an engineering consultant since 1986, and gravitates toward work involving displays and image processing, covering the spectrum from small microdisplays to direct-view displays for portable applications, digital cinema and 3D. He develops complete systems that include FPGAs and associated PC software and algorithms. In the past five years he has made extensive forays into the world of x-ray physics for medicine, designing x-ray lenses, dosimetry software, and laboratory automation as part of a radiotherapy startup. His specialties include: VHDL, microprocessor firmware, displays, image processing, and Mathematica. He has a PhD in physics.
“I have developed for Opal Kelly’s XEM3050, XEM3010, and XEM3001 modules. I am currently designing Xilinx Spartan-6 systems while also continuing to use Opal Kelly boards for scientific instrumentation and display controllers.”
“Opal Kelly is very pleased to introduce these seasoned developers as expert resources for our customers,” said Jake Janovetz, President of Opal Kelly. “This program is a win-win-win for customers, Experts and Opal Kelly. All parties benefit from applying the Experts’ experiences to customer projects using Opal Kelly FPGA USB modules.”
For more information about the Opal Kelly Experts Program, please visit www.opalkelly.com/experts/.
About Opal Kelly
Opal Kelly, founded in 2004, offers a range of powerful, off-the-shelf, FPGA USB 2.0 modules, including the easy-to-use Opal Kelly FrontPanel software interface and robust API. Opal Kelly products provide the essential device-to-computer interconnect for efficient and fast product prototyping, testing, development, and OEM integration. Development engineers, researchers, teachers and serious hobbyists, worldwide, use Opal Kelly modules for an efficient and economical interconnect solution that shortens development time, fills expertise gaps, and dramatically accelerates time to market. For more information, or to purchase Opal Kelly products, please visit www.opalkelly.com.
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Frances Mann-Craik
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