[hpsdr] Blackfin

[Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan]

Is there any interest in an Atlas-pluggable Blackfin board to replace
the PC and an alternative to Sasquash ?

Sasquash Vs Blackfin based board [yet to be named]

Good:
 - Blackfin has free (as in both free beer and free software) tool
chain, C67xx has a $2000 (or more ?) toolchain.
 - Blackfin can run linux kernel (2.6.22 has it officially merged in).
 - Costs $14.51 for 1 unit (on digikey for BF532).
 - Available in LQFP package (BF532 ?).
 - Most importantly has a community around it.
 - Designed for very low power consumption. May be useful for portable
operations.
 - low cost devel jtag (homebrewable?). TI DSPs need proprietary jtag
which costs $1000+.

Bad:
 - Blackfin is fixed point processor. Makes programmer's life more
tough. C67x is floating point.
 - TI codegen tools may be better than gcc toolchain for blackfin at
the moment. This may change in the future.
 - There are devices in the C67xx family which has got much much more
horsepower than Blackfin.

and so on..

disclaimer: I am an ex-TIer. This is not meant as a criticism for TI
DSPs. I still use them and admire them at work. But for amateur use, I
feel availability of Free toolchain is essential for further
experimentation and advancement.

Any ideas? My PCB skills are not so good, but if there is enough
interest, I can take it up. But it will take a while for me to start,
as I am rght now busy with my Ozy/Janus build and bringup.

If someone else want to take it up, BkackfinOne board is a good
starting point. It is a neat 2-layer board design and is under the GNU
GPL.

-- 
  Ramakrishnan - VU3RDD