[hpsdr] Questions re: FPGA firmware

[John Marvin]

  I have a few questions regarding Hermes FPGA firmware:

1) I know that some work is being done to support 7 receivers in Hermes. 
Will that support be part of the standard firmware, or will it only be 
available as a special version?

2) I noticed at one time support for 4 receivers was added to the 
Mercury, but then it appears that was backed out to 2 receivers. Was 
that done because there were problems/bugs with the 4 receiver version, 
or was it due to the space required (I saw a comment saying that with 
the 4 receiver version the FPGA was 98% full)?

3) What is the limiting factor on the number of receivers supported 
(i.e. FPGA space, FPGA performance, etc.)?

4) Will the source for the Hermes FPGA firmware be made available some 
time in the future?

5) Can the firmware be built with the free web version of the Altera 
software, or is another version required?

Thanks!

John
AC0ZG