The paper describe a new powder diffraction instrument for synchrotron radiation sources which combines the high throughput of a position-sensitive detector system with the high resolution normally only provided by a crystal analyzer. It uses the Guinier geometry which is traditionally used with an x-ray tube source. This geometry adapts well to the synchrotron source, provided proper beam conditioning is applied. The high brightness of the SR source allows a high resolution to be achieved. When combined with a photon-counting silicon microstrip detector array, the system becomes a powerful instrument for radiation-sensitive samples or time-dependent phase transition studies.