It is possible to retain only the upper eight bits of each sample and
pack these into two bytes such that the USB can carry 16 Msps complex;
this gives you more passband bandwidth at the expense of dynamic range.
Now that I know it can be done, how do I retain the upper eight bits of each sample?
Is there code already written to do this? I'd like to maximize the passband bandwidth.
Advanced applications of the USRP involve re-synthesizing the FPGA
firmware and performing DSP operations directly on the samples coming
from the ADCs before handing off the data to the USB. This
theoretically gives you access to the entire 64 MHz receive bandwidth;
however, there isn't a great deal of space on the FPGA for custom code,
and the expertise/development time/debugging/pain involved is much
higher than just using GNU Radio on the host.
I'll spare myself the pain and be content with a 16 MHz passband bandwidth.
You have been most helpful. Thank you.