[hpsdr] Janus standalone: a suggestion

[J.D. Bakker]

[This is just a suggestion, not a design request or anything. 
Apologies if this has been mentioned before; I couldn't find anything 
relevant in earler mails]

Hi all,

The TAPR ordering page for Janus rightly warns buyers that "[i]t is 
not a PC sound card". I could well imagine some people being 
interested in a high-performance external sound card only, to be used 
with existing PC SDR software.

I'd like to point out that all Janus needs to be connected to 
existing PC sound cards is digital audio I/O, either AES/EBU 
(professional) or S/PDIF (consumer). This might even be integrated in 
the CPLD, given enough free macrocells, or otherwise through an 
external transmitter like the Cirrus CS8406 or the TI DIT4192. A 
higher performance solution could use an ASRC like the TI SRC4392, to 
preserve the jitter performance of the local clock even for the 
transmit end.

The advantage over USB would be that with balanced cable or even 
fiber such a device could live as close to the antenna as desired, 
while presenting a standard sound card interface to any software, 
since many inexpensive sound cards have S/PDIF interfaces nowadays.

Like I said, just a suggestion,

JDB.
[who works with Linrad, and such hardware would be rather interesting]
-- 
LART. 250 MIPS under one Watt. Free hardware design files.
http://www.lartmaker.nl/