[hpsdr] Mercury Alpha Progress

[Lyle Johnson]

> To be more specific, I am interested in the differences in the hardware. 
> I see the ADC is the same, but a different FPGA is used. How _should_ 
> the two compare, hardware performance-wise. Unlikely anyone can compare 
> the two on a bench at this time, but what can we assume based on the 
> capabilities of the different FPGA devices and other hardware.

Differences in performance, if any, will primarily be in determined by 
the circuitry on the analog side of the ADC as well as PCB layout 
(noise) in that area of the boards.  Since the FPGA code is open source 
for both designs, and the parts are the same series from the same 
vendor, that part of the system should be essentially identical.

Other differences may arise in that Mercury is part of a board set, so 
there may be noise issues associated with the other boards being in 
close proximity, which clot Mercury is in versus other boards, etc. 
QS1R is a standalone device.

Finally, your end application or its environment may impose other 
constraints on system performance.

73,

Lyle KK7P


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