[hpsdr] Blackfin

[Philip Covington]

On 7/12/07, J.D. Bakker <jdb at lartmaker.nl> wrote:
> At 07:47 -0400 12-07-2007, Philip Covington wrote:
> >On 7/12/07, Chris Albertson <chrisalbertson90278 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ><snip>
> >  > The cost of these DSP processors is getting to be lower than the cost
> >>  of
> >  > building a high speed interface.  What does the current HPSDR's USB
> >  > interface cost?  The Blackfin is $14.51.
> >
> ><snip>
> >
> >Unfortunately it does not cost only $15.  There is a lot of support
> >circuitry that must go around that chip and when you start adding all
> >the costs up you into the $150-$250 range (in parts cost alone) for a
> >board that has the necessary hardware on it to support SDR
> >applications.
>
> Hardly.
>
> I originally designed and used the LART (see .sig) as an SDR
> platform. To build a similar BF-based board, you'd need:
>
> Processor: US$14.51
> 32MB SDRAM: US$7.13
> 4MB Boot flash: US$2.37
> FET for core supply: US$0.91
> Inductor for core supply: US$1.27
> Serial transceiver for debug interface: US$1.38
> Pin headers, decoupling caps: ~US$5
> (all prices are Digi-Key, qty 1)
>
> That's US$32.57 without the PCB and the Atlas connector, assuming
> that Atlas supplies 3v3. Add ~$10 for Fast Ethernet.
>
> JDB.
> --
> LART. 250 MIPS under one Watt. Free hardware design files.
> http://www.lartmaker.nl/
>

Yep,  $150-250 was overestimation on my part.  It sounds more like
~$100 in parts including the PCB and other misc parts.

As I said in an earlier post, I guess I am going to have to get a bs1
board built to have something to play with. :-)

73 Phil N8VB

 1184269544.0