[hpsdr] New entry in the (almost) SDR arena

[Steven Wilson]

Being a "professional" in this area - I can tell you that the actual
layout tools are pretty much the same whether you are talking about
Xilinx, Actel, Altera, or whoever.  The limit on upper-end devices is
the nominal difference between the free tools and the ones that cost.  
Xilinx is the tool set that stands out in not using Synplify as their
synthesis tool. Synplify is the industries most popular tool used for
synthesis in FPGAs.

I'm explicitly talking about the processing tools, and not the available
IP that you might get from the respective companies also.  So - if you
can get the design to fit through the free tools into one of the
supported devices, then you'll likely see no real advantage going to the
paid-for tools.

73 de Steve KA6S

Bill Tracey wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> For Janus and Ozy I've been using Altera's Quartus II Web Edition (free as 
> in beer).   I've been very happy with it - I knew nothing about using FPGA 
> and CPLDs when this whole thing started and now know enough to use the 
> little gizmos effectively.   Very happy to have learned how to use these 
> devices.
>
> The paid for Quartus edition supports more devices (the hi end ones) and 
> have more tools for DSP design and embedded CPU cores.  It would be nice to 
> have access to some of these but for what we've done with Janus and Ozy I 
> don't think we have the need.
>
> As we try and put more DSP processing into the FPGA the tools may become an 
> issue -- I've not done enough DSP type stuff in the FPGAs offer an opinion.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bill (kd5tfd)
>
> At 10:44 AM 1/23/2007, Howard Long wrote:
>   
>> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>>
>> Hi Phil
>>
>>     
>>> A lot has changed in the last few years.  The DDC/DUC can be done
>>>       
>> completely in a Cyclone II FPGA
>>
>> I chose not to use programmable logic for several reasons, but primarily
>> that I have no experience of them, which at the time was as good a reaosn as
>> any!
>>
>> As a matter of interest, what are the options for FPGA design tools these
>> days? My understanding historically is that the pricing on many of the dev
>> tools in many cases, especially the high end, take it out of the hands of
>> kitchen table designers.
>>
>> 73, Howard G6LVB
>>     
>
>
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