[hpsdr] Call for Comments and Discussion - OzyII : To TCP/IP or not to TCP/IP

[Henry Vredegoor]

Hi All,

My first and quick conclusion after reading the posts would be that IF we
want full, serious TCP/IP, we would need a "real" microprocessor, not a
soft-core in an FPGA.

My second conclusion would be that a real throughput at 1 Gbit/s is hardly
possible with a reasonably affordable solution. It would be a nice
compatibility thing however, but no more. 

But still lots of other questions:
What kind of performance/processing power DO we need from a solution with a
real microprocessor running Linux at the data rates and throughput to be
expected with typical networked SDR applications?
What TYPE of processor would we need? A general purpose type processor or
would a processor with special extensions for networking (if there are such
beasts) or e.g. DSP be useful?

Although I vote for the full TCP/IP solution, some may question if we
want/need a full functional TCP/IP or if we could do with less. 
I think the USRP2 may be going that route by adding just UDP?

Some idea's/thoughts:

I think a lot of people on this list know the BeagleBoard and its
capabilities and there were previous discussions about using this little gem
for SDR in general.

- Would a test with a Beagleboard, using it's expansion port as an interface
to the Atlas bus be usefull/possible/upto do the job as the processor in the
above discussed situation? ($140, OMAP3530 processor, 1,200 Dhrystone MIPS)

The idea is to combine the powers of the BeagleBoard with a new OzyII board.

- If a test as described above would be successful, would an option to
connect a BeagleBoard as a daughterboard to an OzyII be a useful setup?

- Are there other, similar or maybe better suited (BeagleBoard is somewhat
overkill for only this function), COTS, small, cheap/affordable, single
board microprocessor systems/solutions available to support this idea?

73's,

Henry.