Overview

The NI Ettus USRP X420 is a high-performance software defined radio designed for applications like prototyping radar, satellite communications, and advanced wireless communications research.  It has 2 transmit and 2 receive channels and frequency coverage from 10 MHz – 20 GHz with up to 1 GHz instantaneous bandwidth. This extended frequency range enables research in the FR3 band for 6G as well as covering important bands for non-terrestrial networks (NTN) and satellite communications. The wide bandwidth allows for a high resolution in localization scenarios for applications like integrated sensing and communications (ISAC). Each channel supports LO sharing, making the X420 an ideal platform for building multi-channel phase coherent systems.

Use the software of your choice 
The NI Ettus USRP X420 is fully supported on the popular open-source USRP Hardware Driver (UHD) version 4.9.1 or later.  The USRP X420 supports open-source SDR design flows such as C/C++ and GNU Radio, as well as LabVIEW. Unlike other RFSoC-based systems, the USRP X420 is fully ready to port your previous UHD designs to take advantage of high-performance capabilities with a simple recompile.

Networked / Stand-Alone Operation
Since the USRP X420 is built on the ZU28DR RF System on Chip (RFSoC) device, it comes equipped with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processing subsystem, clocked up to 1.2 GHz for stand-alone application requirements. Additionally, the RFSoC contains a dual-core ARM Cortex-R5 real-time processing unit for onboard monitoring and control.

Built-In IP
The onboard RFSoC on the USRP X420 contains more than twice the FPGA programmable logic resources than that of the previous generation X-series USRP devices. In addition, the ZU28DR comes with 8 soft-decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) hard IP cores, ideal for wireless communication systems. Given the high-speed nature of the built-in ADCs and DACs to the RFSoC, the Zynq device has 8 digital upconversion and digital down-conversion IP cores allowing for rapid in-band retuning or signal reduction.

Multi-Radio Synchronization 
Multi-radio clocking and timing synchronized operation is possible with the built-in GPSDO (GPS disciplined oscillator) or with the 10 MHz reference and 1 PPS (Pulse Per Second) input signal interfaces. Multi-Radio phase-aligned and phase-coherent operations are supported, using the RF chain LO import and export functionality available on the USRP X420.

Features

• 10 MHz to 20 GHz frequency range ​
• Up to 1 GHz Bandwidth ​
• 2 TX, 2 RX channels​
• Multi-channel phase coherency with independent LO sharing supported for each channel ​
• 5G NR RX EVM of < -35 dB at 7 GHz  
• AMD Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC ZU28DR-2
  • 12 bit ADC, 14 bit DAC
  • IQ Sample Clock rates up to 500 MS/s
  • Onboard SD-FEC, DDC, DUC
  • Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 up to 1.2 GHz CPU
  • Dual-core ARM Cortex-A5 MPCore up to 500 MHz
• Two QSFP28 ports (10 Gigabit Ethernet, 100 Gigabit Ethernet, Aurora)
• Two iPass+™ zHD® Interfaces (PCIe Gen3 x 8)
• RJ45 (1 GbE) [1]
• External RX, TX LO input ports
• 10 MHz Clock reference 
• PPS time reference
• Trig In/Out Interface
• Built-in GPSDO 
• Two FPGA Programmable GPIO Interfaces (HDMI)
  • 2x 12 lanes via HDMI with SPI protocol support
• 1 Type C USB host port 
• 1 Type C USB port (serial console, JTAG) 
• Watchdog timer
• OpenEmbedded Linux
• USRP Hardware Driver™ (UHD) open-source software API version 4.9.1 or later
• RF Network on Chip (RFNoC™) FPGA development framework
• AMD Vivado® 2021.1 Design Suite (license not included)
• GNU Radio support  through GR-UHD, an interface to UHD distributed by GNU Radio

[1] The RJ45 port is used for remote management of the device and does not support IQ streaming.

Additional Resources

• USRP Hardware Driver Users Manual
• Building and Installing UHD and GNU Radio Application Note
• Verifying USRP Operation Application Note
• RFNoC Development Application Note
• Getting Started With UHD and C Application Note
• Safety, Environmental, and Regulatory Information

Kit Contents

• USRP X420
• RJ45 Ethernet Cable
• USB-C to USB-A cable
• Power Supply

Recommended Accessories

• Dual 100 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe Interface Kit (PN 788216-01)
• QSFP28 to 4xSFP28 Breakout Cable (PN 788214-01)
• Octoclock CDA-2990
• HDMI cable (PN 152629-01 or 152629-02)
• HDMI Shielded AUX I/O Connector Block (PN 782444-01)
• 3V Active GPS Antenna

Note: The USRP X420 does not support interchangeable daughterboards