The OP4512 is an affordable compact entry-level simulator with up to 128 fast I/O channels with signal conditioning, 12 channels for RS422 or low-speed fiber-optic communication (for a total of 140 I/Os), 4 high-speed communication ports (SFPs), and 1 free PCIe slot for optional I/O cards.

The integration of an Intel® Xeon® 4-core processor with a powerful Xilinx® Kintex®-7 410T FPGA provides great simulation power and sub-microsecond simulation time steps to maximize the accuracy of fast power electronic systems. It is fully compatible with RT-LAB and HYPERSIM.

The OP4512XG is designed to be used either as a desktop, shelf top, or mounted in a standard 19" rack.

Simulator Architecture

The front of the chassis provides access to the SFP ports and the synchronization connectors,
The back of the chassis provides access to the DB37 and DB9 I/O connectors, computer ports, target power cable, and main power switch.

The main housing is divided into two sections, each with a specific purpose:

• The lower section of the chassis contains a powerful target computer that can be added to a network of simulators or can be used standalone. It is used to run simulations built with OPAL-RT’s RT-LAB or HYPERSIM software simulation platform and includes the following features:
  
  • MicroATX motherboard
  • OPAL-RTLinux real-time operating system
  • Intel® Xeon® 4 cores, 3.7 GHz CPU
  • 16 GB of DRAM
  • 256 GB SSD disk
  • 1 free PCIe slots
  • Standard computer ports. See section OP4512 Simulator Specifications for details.
• The upper section contains the high-speed FPGA and the I/O modules with conditioning for up to 128 I/Os. It includes:
  • A Xilinx® Kintex®-7 FPGA programmable from the target computer via PCIe. The FPGA is used to execute models designed with the OPAL-RT RT-XSG toolbox, manage the I/O lines and execute embedded FPGA-based simulations. It exchanges data with the real-time simulations running on the target computer CPUs via the PCIe link, an 8-slot flat carrier board capable of connecting any combination of up to 4 digital or analog conditioning modules.
  • Each module controls 16 or 32 I/O  analog or digital channels, for a total of up to 128 channels.
  • 4 SFP ports for high-speed communication with other FPGA-based systems or with external devices. The standard communication protocols available with the OP4512 are based on Xilinx Aurora (1 to 5 Gbps). Other protocols, such as the Gigabit Ethernet, can also be implemented.
    • These SFP ports can be used to expand the simulator I/O capability using OPAL-RT’s Multi-System Expansion link (MuSE): each port can be connected to one OPAL-RT remote I/O unit  (OP4520, OP5607, OP5650, OP5705-IO, OP5707-IO) effectively increasing the simulator I/O capability to a maximum of 1024 channels.
    • SFP ports not used for MuSE remain compatible with the legacy Generic Aurora link. The MuSE link is compatible with OPAL-RT boards' I/O management architecture.

Modular configuration

The OP4512 can contain up to 4 I/O modules, according to the user's needs.

All I/O modules are factory installed. Changes can only be made by OPAL-RT, its affiliates and certified distributors. Opening the simulator case will automatically void the warranty.

Many combinations of compatible I/O modules are possible. Please refer to the Compatibility chart. Check for a typical configuration in the section below.

Typical I/O modules configuration

This is typical I/O modules configuration and is provided as an example only.

This example shows the use of two (2) OP5330-3 16 Channels Analog Output Modules (total of 32 analog output channels), one (1) OP5342 6 Analog Channel Input module and one (1) OP5369 32 Digital I/O module.

The OP4512 offers two types of synchronization, either LVDS or fiber-optic, making it easier to synchronize with any OPAL-RT device.