[hpsdr] Blackfin

[Chris Albertson]

That Linux now runs on Blackfin makes a huge difference.
This means that one could
develop using PC hardware do some level of testing before having
to move to the more difficult embedded environment.  It's a big
"Plus" that your same development tools can run on your desktop
and in the target device.

To me an SDR radio that effectively has a closed development
system is worthless.  What's the point of SDR if you can't
mess with the software? (For most people non-free development
system is a deal breaker)

These chips are cheap, $14.51 each.  Why not use several
of them on the controller card.  Also you can design the card
so that multiple cards canbe used on the same Atlas bus.
Then processing power is a non-issue because you can scale it.

Once you have a high bandwidth A/D and DAC and move away from
using sound cards chips then you can do stuff like HDTV
and other very high bandwidth modes.  These are much more
demanding than CW or SSB.  You are going to need a controller
card with a lot of computer power.

I'd be very interested in this. and I think anyone else who
wants to experiment with SDR software would also want a
controller that can be programeed using common, free and
familar tools.

Using a free tool chain that most people already know
would open up development to a larger grou[p of contrib up the
controller software

As for fixed v. floating point.  Fixed works well for this
kind of thing.



--- Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan <vu3rdd at gmail.com> wrote:

> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
> 
> 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
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Chris Albertson
  Home:   310-376-1029  chrisalbertson90278 at yahoo.com
  Office: 310-336-5189  Christopher.J.Albertson at aero.org
  KG6OMK/AG


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