[hpsdr] OCXO's for Griffin/ PIC like processor

[Henry Vredegoor]

  Hi Phil, All,

Sorry for responding so late to your reaction to my post.
Somehow it ended up in my SPAM folder where I found it while cleaning up 
my mail....

On 8/31/2010 3:04 AM, Phil Harman wrote:
>> >  Maybe wise to include a small, PIC-like processor for this task instead
>> >  of doing this in the FPGA softcore processor.
>> >
> Sorry, don't follow your logic. The softcore uP is free whilst the PIC
> will cost $s?  I see that many of the future HPSDR project will be using
> soft uPs so this is a good time to start learning how to use them. We
> intend to incorporate one in the OzyII FPGA.
>
>

Let me explain my thoughts / logic some more:

Of course developing a softcore microprocessor setup in FPGA for HPSDR 
is a cool development and I'am all for it.

My reason for mentioning a PIC-like processor was that these types of 
small processors are often already used for this kind of task.
Software for different protocol type decoding may already be there and 
probably could be (partly-) re-used.
The recent types already include extensive serial communication hardware 
provisions, so it would be very easy to implement a serial interface.
Also I think a lot more people are familiar with programming  these type 
of processors, which could help software/protocol development and 
availability.
The chips are not expensive at all, about USD 5 for larger quantities I 
think would be a fair estimate for a top-range type device.

Would a separate, independent communications "front end" micro processor 
not relieve the "main" softcore processor from trivial tasks without 
possibly interfering with time-critical tasks?


73's,

Henry - PA0HJA