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OK, so you are worried. You have 10 or 100
PSM-4900 modems and now we are talking about discontinuing them and introducing
a new series of modems that are different. You have questions:
 | How do I support the equipment I already
have? Will Datum Systems still support and repair them? |
| What happens when I need to add new
modems? Are the new ones compatible? |
| Why can't I just buy more of what I have
now? I really like the PSM-4900. |
| Are you going to raise the modem price? |
First, we want to assure all of our
customers that your interest is our interest. We will support you and our
equipment in any way possible. We have tried to consider the consequences of
this change, and have specific plans to cover most concerns.
Why are we making this change to a very
popular and successful Product?
The short answer is "Change is inevitable."
In a little more detail, the PSM-4900 series has been in production
approximately 5 years, and it uses hundreds of different parts.. Over that time
various parts have gone out of production, while others have been superseded by
newer parts and technology. In addition a huge change in the way electronics is
designed and manufactured is in process - the requirements for Reduction of
Hazardous Substances (RoHS), Green and Lead Free dictates in various locations
force us to quickly re-design to enable new manufacturing processes to meet
these requirements. And lastly, the satellite industry is now trying to move to
newer technologies that reduces satellite spectrum use.
What is changed in the PSM-500 to meet
those changing requirements?
The entire baseband (non-RF processing)
portion of the PSM-4900 has been re-designed for the PSM-500 series. The new
parts are ready for RoHS compliance as they become available. The parts no
longer available have been replaced in large measure by Intellectual Property
(IP) in new larger Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or newer compliant
parts. Those new FPGAs represent an almost 10 fold increase in the amount of
programmable logic, which in turn permits new capabilities. Those include new modulation modes
like 8PSK and 16QAM, plus new FEC technologies like more advanced TPC, S-Tec
convolutional FEC and preparations for Low Density Parity Check FEC (LDPC). This
may be a lot of alphabet soup for many of you, but what it means is that the new
PSM-500 is ready for new requirements.
Externally the PSM-500 looks almost
identical to the PSM-4900. There are only 3 physical changes to the package:
| The front panel Model Number is changed
from PSM-4900 to PSM-500. There is a new LCD menu item which displays the
feature set installed. |
| The front panel far right infrared
window is removed. No one used it anyway. |
| There is a new USB control port added to
the rear panel. This is necessary because loading new software or firmware
requires a faster speed than the RS-232 control port can provide. The
RS-232/485 port is still there and active. |
Any external cables, adaptors, connectors,
etc that you may use with the PSM-4900 are usable with the PSM-500.
Internally the PSM-500 looks similar, but
the main modem PCB has been significantly re-designed. Major physical changes
are:
| All new baseband digital signal
processing loaded into two Xilinx FPGAs. |
| The Multiplexer, TCM and Reed-Solomon
transmit Codec
are now standard and built onto the main board.
This is necessary to support
especially 8PSK which uses at least the TCM and Reed-Solomon capability. |
| New physical connectors for alternate FECs.
As a matter of fact even the standard receive FECs are now on a plug in card. There are
two SO-DIMM style 144 pin sockets on the main board now for FECs. They are wired
in parallel and can use whatever FECs are installed on either board. The
standard FEC board normally contains Viterbi, Trellis Code Modulation and
Reed-Solomon Codecs. |
| The standard FEC card can also have one
of two TPC options pre-mounted: a 4k Block Option TPC identical to that used
on the PSM-4900, or a new 16k Block Option TPC backward compatible with the
PSM-4900 but with new modes offering more coding gain and higher speeds. |
| The firmware is upgradeable with the ability to load and use firmware for 8PSK
and 16QAM and higher speeds. |
The internal option TPC and
Multiplexer/Reed-Solomon daughter cards from the PSM-4900 are not usable in the
new PSM-500, but note that the Multiplexer/Reed-Solomon is now standard in the
PSM-500. The existing "SDMS" and the new "SnIP" Ethernet interface cards are
able to operate in either PSM-4900s or PSM-500s.
How does Datum Systems plan on
supporting the PSM-4900s in the field?
By several methods. First we have
stockpiled necessary components to support repair of the PSM-4900 modems for
years to come. These modems have been extremely reliable, with actual field
MTBFs over 250,000 hours, so we also expect few repairs required.
All of our firmware and even the manuals
will continue to be available and supported on the web site.
Next, we are considering a "Trade-Up"
program, where units in warranty that are 1 year old or less could be upgraded
by replacement of the main PCB with a new M500 PCB on a one-time basis for a
very nominal charge. We will release more information on this program in the
near future.
And last, we expect that units returned
from the Trade-Up program can be used for repair and replacement of other
PSM-4900s in the field. That program should also provide refurbished units for
applications that demand only PSM-4900s.
Is the PSM-500 Compatible with the
PSM-4900?
Yes, we even have one standard package or
"Feature Set" named "M505" that provides a unit with very similar capabilities to
the PSM-4900 -- that is BPSK and QPSK modulation, speeds to 5 Mbps, Viterbi and
Reed-Solomon with an option for the same TPC chip as the PSM-4900 TPC option.
The Reed-Solomon codec plus the same IBS multiplexer as in the PSM-4900 are now
standard. There
are only 3 differences other than the physical differences noted above:
| The remote control protocol is revised
to handle all the new features available.
New - Firmware Rev 0.16 and above now
includes the ability to accept and respond to PSM-4900 protocol control
packets within the limits of the PSM-4900. This allows mixed systems using one
set of control software. |
| The front panel menu structure is
modified for the same reason, but still uses the same concepts. |
| The firmware is upgradeable to add new
more advanced modes only available for the PSM-500 series.
This is the best of both worlds - your can have something like a PSM-4900 but
be able to upgrade it later as needs arise. |
Are we raising the prices?
This is partly out of our control since we
are an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and our resellers control prices to
a large extent. Still, the price of comparable capabilities should be
approximately the same to slightly less or more depending on what you were
purchasing before. The M505 feature set is slightly more than a bare bones
PSM-4900 unit, but includes a multiplexer and Reed-Solomon Codec. Comparing it
on that basis it is actually lower cost.
You should also find that our M511 and M523
upgrade units are significantly lower cost than anything else on the market with
even close specifications. These units can also save significant monthly space
segment costs due to reduced spectrum use capabilities.
At the end of the day we are confident that
our customers will be very pleased with the new PSM-500 series, in performance,
reliability and capability.
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