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compared spec
FIND YOUR PERFECT SIDEKIQ™
Sidekiq™ NVM2
Sidekiq™ NV100
Sidekiq™ M.2
compared spec
Sidekiq™ NVM2
TUNING RANGE
30 MHz to 6 GHz
BANDWIDTH
Up to 50 MHz
Power Consumption
3 - 4 W (typical usage)
Integrated FPGA
AMD® Artix®-7 XC7A50T FPGA with a Gen2 x2
PCIe interface to host
Form Factor
M.2 3042 key B + M form factor, commonly used for NVMe SSD drives
I/O
Gen2 PCIe x2 Interface to Host
Receivers
2
Transmitters
2
Sidekiq™ NV100
TUNING RANGE
30 MHz to 6 GHz (RF access down to 10 MHz)
BANDWIDTH
30 MHz to 6 GHz (RF access down to 10 MHz)
Power Consumption
4-6 W (typical usage)
Integrated FPGA
4-6 W (typical usage)
Form Factor
M.2 2280 Key B + M (22 mm x 80 mm x 4.5 mm)
I/O
PCIe Gen2 x1 (5 Gbps) + GPIO
Receivers
Up to 2
Transmitters
Up to 2
Sidekiq™ M.2
TUNING RANGE
70 MHz to 6 GHz
BANDWIDTH
Up to 50 MHz per channel
Power Consumption
Under 2W (typical usage)
Integrated FPGA
Xilinx Artix 7 XC7A50T FPGA with x1 Gen2 PCIe interface
Form Factor
M.2 card, Module Key B+M, Socket 2 (30 mm x 42 mm x 4 mm)
I/O
PCIe Gen2 x1 (5 Gbps) + PCIe Gen2 x1 (5 Gbps) + USB 2.0
Receivers
Up to 2
Transmitters
Available in 1Rx / 1Tx or 2Rx / 2Tx configurations
Resources
Datasheets
Epiq - datasheet - Sidekiq™ NVM2
Sidekiq NVM2 is a highly flexible RF powerhouse optimized to tackle your most challenging signal environments. This embeddable SDR-based RF transceiver comes in a tiny M.2 3042 Key B + M form factor that allows it to be used in millions of host devices where PCIe-based NVMe® solid state drives (SSDs) are supported. Sidekiq NVM2 leverages Analog Devices’ ADRV9004, a wideband transceiver RFIC that delivers extended RF tuning capabilities, as well as exceptional RF fidelity and instantaneous dynamic range. Multiple RF operating modes are supported, including SISO, dual band SISO, MIMO, and phase coherent Rx or Tx. The NVM2 is supported by Epiq Solutions' libsidekiq API, enabling rapid customer development.
Application notes
Squeezing the Balloon: Effective SDR Power Budgeting to Maximize UxS Range & Cap
Software Defined Radios (SDRs) are the Swiss army knives of spectrum battlefield situational awareness. Their uses range from satellite communications (SATCOM) and signals intelligence (SIGINT), to direction finding (DF), radar, jamming and many more besides. Even small drones are upgrading capabilities from only visible spectrum cameras to much more advanced capabilities using SDRs.
UAS Trends
Recent conflicts have accelerated trends that were already underway in the Unmanned Aerial System(UAS) market. Figure 1 shows a variety of different attributes that illustrate changes in the military market. The first three relate to differences over time worldwide, with an increasing number of countries able to deploy drones, a predicted 40% increase in spending, and a rapidly growing number of patents being issued as interest in this sector is reflected in innovation (graphs a through c).
UxS Challenges, EPIQ Solutions
Expectations on UxS suppliers to innovate and evolve their platforms quickly, and to ramp to volume faster are getting higher and higher. The addition of spectral monitoring to even small platforms dramatically increases situational awareness, enabled by small and flexible Software Defined Radios (SDRs). For design teams, a frequent issue is the ‘make vs. buy’ decision for the SDR, and whether the project can afford the time or engineering bandwidth to make every piece in-house. As a leading supplier of Small Form Factor (SFF) and open architecture SDRs, Epiq obviously has strong opinions on this topic
UxS Payload Form Factors
Unmanned systems (UxS) come in many shapes and sizes, whether airborne, in the water, or land-based. Most count as SWaP-constrained systems, with care needed in design to properly budget for power, weight and available payload volumes. Other notes in this series have discussed the challenges of power budgeting for SDRs, and RF architectures that optimize SWaP. We often have less choice in the form factors we need to fit into, as these are usually set by the larger system, and the customer question will be “I have this form factor, what can you do in it?”.
Which RF Architecture Should I Choose
Software Defined Radios (SDRs) have become ubiquitous in applications that value their flexibility, reconfigurability, spectrum agility and upgradability. These include defense, public safety, wireless infrastructure, space, SATCOM, test and measurement to name a few. However, there are several common methods of implementing SDR architectures – how do you know which is best to meet a specific need?
Considerations in the Build vs Buy Decision-Making Process for SDRs
The flexibility and enhanced performance offered by software-defined radios (SDRs) in RF transceiver applications is driving an increased demand for their use across many industries such as defense, telecom, aerospace, and government.
Case studies
Open-source repositories
Blog
Introducing Sidekiq™ NVM2: Small Form Factor MIMO SDR
Discover the Sidekiq™ NVM2, Epiq Solutions' latest compact MIMO SDR, offering RF flexibility and low SWaP for various applications. Explore its features and potential in the RF spectrum landscape.
Epiq Examples Video Series #2 - Installing Libsidekiq SDR API on a Raspberry Pi 5 to Enable Epiq’s Sidekiq NVM2
Aaron Foster Video Series #2 - Installing Libsidekiq SDR API on a Raspberry Pi 5 to Enable Epiq’s Sidekiq NVM2
Software Defined Radios – Which RF Architecture Should I Choose?
Choosing the right RF architecture is critical for SDR performance. From Superheterodyne to Direct Sampling, each offers unique trade-offs in size, power, and capability. Discover which architecture best fits your mission needs—register now to access the full article.
