Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Hardware extending

[Justin Bracken]

Hey Tomas,

I would suggest you look the other way, you have these Xilinx/Altera
boards with FMC/HSMC connectors (that's fixed, i meant xilinx sticks
to FMC and so is Altera to HSMC).

browse through links

http://tinyurl.com/3hd4k2u
http://tinyurl.com/3lw7ad3

Developing a Radio card (similar to lyrtech) (for both FMC and HSMC,
AMC (OBSAI/CPRI) ) interface i think would attract lot more HW
developers and has better reach. HW developers please pour in your
thoughts. browse through their RF quick start kit for more idea.

J Bracken


 Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2011 21:01:32 +0300
 From: "Tomas D." <address@hidden>
 To: address@hidden
 Subject: [Discuss-gnuradio] Hardware extending
 Message-ID: <address@hidden>
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

 Hello,
 I see that many guys here are using USRP hardware which is really great.
 However, I am interested in extending compatible hardware list by using
 any manufacturer FPGA development kit. The majority takes Altera
 development kits using HSMC port for additional hardware or Xilinx using
 FMC. Basically, yes, I am considering doing a new motherboard like the
 USRP which could be connected to the any FPGA development kit from
 Altera or Xilinx. All other ports for daughterboards should be the same
 and fit the new motherboard.
 My plan is to use Altera Stratix II GX development kit, which has PCIe
 x8 and 1Gbit ethernet and I will add CY7C68013 for USB connection. Now
 the more interesting part is ADC and DAC selection. We all know that
 USRP2 use at least 100MSPS ADC and DAC, 14bit and 16bit accuracy
 accordingly, so that would be the point of base:
 DACs: AD9777 from Analog devices.
 ADCs: LTC2284 from Linear Technologies.
 These devices are selected for 2 channels I/O or one pair I-Q, but can
 we consider other (possibly cheaper) options?
 For example it is possible to buy pretty cheap dual channel ADC 250MSPS
 here:
 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ADS62P48-ADC-250MSPS-14bit-DDR-Parallel-Out-/180671130732?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a10d6ac6c
 , but are there any special hardware requirements? This particular
 option would be better for any student/amateur to buy, instead of using
 Digikey, Farnell, etc.
 I see a lot of documentation regarding GNU Radio, but there are almost
 nothing about hardware. I am not interested in taking over Ettus
 Research, but I hope to attract more people in hardware development :-)

 Stratix II GX development board:
 http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-pciexpress_s2gx.html
 EP2SGX90F1508C3 FPGA, 36384 ALMs (90960 eq. LEs), 48 DSP blocks, 192
 18x18 multipliers, 8 PLLs, 4.5MB on chip memory.

 Thank You.

 Sincerely,
 Tomas D.