[hpsdr] An idea for a project

[John Melton]

Hi Paul,

my ghpsdr3 project splits the software into 3 parts.

A hardware server which interfaces to the HPSDR hardware (or Softrock,
etc) and handles sending commands to set frequency, etc and splits the
I/Q samples for multiple receivers into separate UDP streams.

A DSP server which handles all the DSP processing.

Client interfaces.

All 3 communicate with each other over the network using UDP/TCP so can
run on separate machines.

The client can be as simple or as complex as required.  I have simple
clients for Android and iPhone, Java client for embedding in a web page
or running standalone and a Qt 4 client.  All the clients can run across
the internet.

How about a client with a display and real switches and knobs?


I am hoping to be able to get the hardware server code running on a soft
core processor in the FPGA on Metis.

An interesting development is the new Intel Atom processor combined with
an Altera FPGA on a single chip.  No need for a soft core processor.

Regards,

John g0orx/n6lyt


On Sun, 2010-12-26 at 22:48 -0600, KA5FPT Paul wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
> 
> To the community,
> Recently while doing some searching on-line I came across the following 
> bits of information, and this got me thinking of a project.
> 
> First I came across the following while looking up some facts on the 
> SDR-Cube - 
> (http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?action=printpage;topic=72022.0)
> The writer wrote:
> "This is a fantastic development. Finally someone  who actually 
> understands that  building a ham radio transceiver on a PC platform is a 
> stone age concept.
> 
> This SDR Cube  concept is the right one for the future. If Flexradio did 
> the same thing their products would be a runaway success. Unfortunately 
> the flex groupies like riding around on a horse and cart when hamming 
> when they could be speeding around the track on a Ferrari using just 
> such an embedded solution.
> 
> An embedded control integrated control system for ham transceiver 
> without  the MS bloat ware and latency will be the final remake  of the 
> SDR concept for hams. This is the first company that has pulled this 
> off. The first company that releases an embedded version of the Flex5000 
> will be selling  a very popular transceiver.
> 
> Lets hope more companies come up with SDR  products like the Cube 
> Transceiver using  high performance embedded hardware. Micro controllers 
> are  cheap readily available these days, there's absolutely no need to 
> use a stone age PC and dinosaur MS bloatware.  The folks behind SDR Cube 
> are certainly smart forward thinking people, they certainly understand 
> that  the vast majority of hams like playing with  knobs. A SDR box with 
> knobs will  have very wide market appeal. I wish them well, lets hope 
> that they bring out a top of the range transceiver that blows everything 
> away. A  large color screen, 200 watt FET PA and all embedded  hardware 
> in one box will be a big hit. Maybe this company will wake Flexradio up 
> from their drunken PC/Windoz stupor."
> 
> 
> Now I don't agree with all that the writer wrote, but I do understand 
> the frustrations that do occur when using Microsoft Windows.  Then while 
> doing some research on the BeagleBoard I came across the link to a site 
> called DesignSomething.org (http://designsomething.org/). A site "... 
> designed to highlight open source software communities and projects that 
> utilize Texas Instruments technology."  Among the products was one 
> called the Pandora (http://openpandora.org/). An open console hardware 
> for gaming but powerful enough to be used for many other projects. I 
> started wondering if this could be used for interfacing to the HPSDR. 
> But I worried if it had enough power to handle the SDR processing.
> 
> Then while sitting back thinking, with a good bottle of dark microbrew 
> beer, I started to wonder. Why not off load the "SDR processing" from 
> the PC to an external processor? Those who remember the earlier days of 
> gaming knows that at one time all we had was the vga chip on the IBM 
> motherboard. As games progressed and the need for more video processing 
> was required, the "gpu" (graphical processor unit) came about. Of course 
> that led to the video card industry, and in turn visually better quality 
> games. The two went hand and hand each pushing the other. Well why not 
> develop our own "SDR processing unit"? What I envision is that from the 
> HPSDR Metis we could use the gigabit Ethernet to feed our "SDR 
> processing unit", which would do all of the processing extracting the 
> information from the I and Q streams. In turn the "SDR processing unit" 
> would be connected to a PC, or any other human interface device such as 
> the Pandora, to strictly do information processing. In other words to 
> enter frequencies, modes, filters, etc. Since the "SDR processing unit" 
> will only be handling SDR processing latency issues should then be 
> eliminated.
> 
> Of course there are probably a hundred issues and complications that I 
> have not thought about such as audio and video processing. And I am sure 
> not all will agree that this will make a good project. But what does 
> everyone else think? Will moving  the SDR processing from
> the PC (Windows, Apple, Linux, etc.) to a separate board help us or hurt us?
> 
> Paul Cecil
> KA5FPT
> 
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