[hpsdr] The basics

[Philip Covington]

Hi Alex,

On 5/2/06, Alex <harvilchuck at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> ATLAS - A power and data bus backplane.  Designed to use an off-the-shelf ATX power supply
>
> JANUS - An ADC/DAC board to interface to a SDR-1000 with a USB interface
>
> LIONHEART - An FPGA-based controller card for the ATLAS backplane with an FX2-based USB interface
>
> MERCURY - An ATLAS backplane 0-30MHz direct sampling receiver with a 130MHz A/D with and FPGA-based DDC.
>
> SASQUATCH - An I/O board for interfacing analog controls to the ATLAS backplane (knobs, lights, switches, dials, etc.)

Nope, TI DSP based card to eliminate the PC (and for other things that
Lyle can explain better).

> OZYMANDIAS -  An ATLAS backplane-based ADC/DAC Card

The OZY board is a Cyclone II FPGA and Cypress FX2 USB 2.0 board.  It
is a bigger version of the Lionheart.

> "TBD" - An ATLAS backplane card extender and prototyping board

PROTO

> I ask questions for a living (requirements engineer). My (initial) questions are:
>
> If MERCURY is also meant to be "stand-alone", why not just use LIONHEART and ATLAS with a 13.8 VDC ATX power supply and save the time/cost of developing a second version of MERCURY?

That was an initial idea.  The MERCURY will probably not have a stand
alone version in the way I first envisioned it.  Instead, since Lyle
is doing the SASQUATCH, I would rather concentrate on having the
Mercury work with it.

> What is the difference between OZYMANDIAS and JANUS? Why does JANUS not use LIONHEART for the USB interface?

The JANUS could use either the OZY board or the LIONHEART.

> (I gather that JANUS is the old Xylo-SDR and OZYMANDIAS is the old HPSDR design)

Not really, both are new designs that are specific to the requirements
of the other boards  being developed.

> Is the focus on getting a stand-alone system or one that is a FEP (Front-end processor) for a computer (Win or Linux)?

Both.

> Is the following the suggested configuration for an operating system?
>     BACKPLANE - ATLAS
>     192kHz RECEIVER / TRANSMITTER - OZYMANDIAS

No QSD board has been defined yet.

>     30MHz RECEIVER -  MERCURY
>     CONTROLLER - LIONHEART
>     I/O BOARD - SASQUATCH

We haven't talked about an I/O board yet.

> Alex, N3NP

Probably what will happen first is that the ATLAS - JANUS - OZY
combination will be used for a multiple sound card replacement for use
with the SDR-1000 or Softrock.  The MERCURY will soon be added and at
that point we will determine whether we also need a DDS - QSD based
solution.  Lyle's SASQUATCH will come along and allow us to be
independent of a PC for the DSP processing (if that is what you
desire) or the OZY will be used for the PC interface in the other
case.

Maybe someone else will jump in here too (since I am sure I have
confused more than clarified the path).  This project is what you make
it.   We welcome any input and contribution.

73 de Phil N8VB

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