[hpsdr] [ATLAS] Is 6 slots enough?

[Ray Anderson]

>Hi group,

>Is the 6 slots of the curent ATLAS design enough?  Since there are
>only three ATLAS alpha boards in existence should we add more slots to
>the design?  If so how many?  8 slots?  10 slots?

>Another option would be to design some kind of bridge between two
>ATLAS boards.  Depending on how the ATLAS boards are mounted we could
>have a pretty simple PCB that connects a slot on each of the ATLAS
>boards together... two ATLAS boards would give us 10 slots for
>example.  Maybe this could be part of an IO board design so we would
>really have 11 slots?

>Or do we just provide some way to interconnect only certain signals
>between ATLAS boards so each might have their own OZY or SASQ boards?

>73 de Phil N8VB

I like the concept of keeping ATLAS at it's present size to support
implementations that can live with 6 slots but with some sort of
'bridge' board that could cascade multiple ATLAS boards to scale the
slot count to larger sizes. One ATLAS gets you 6 slots, 2 would get you
10 usable slots, and (gasp) 3 would get you 14 usable slots. (Thought
the SI may degrade somewhat with cascading. For low datarate signals it
should be fine).

The bridge board could support all the bus lines with  a header and
shorting jumpers so that some of the bus lines could be isolated to
allow separate OZY or SASQ boards on each ATLAS as Phil has suggested.

Or for a minimalist approach the bridge might be as simple as a ribbon
cable with appropriate DIN connectors on each end.

Ray	WB6TPU



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