Re: Hardware extending

GNU Radio
1

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.” [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Discuss-gnuradio] Hardware extending
Message-ID: [email protected]
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 :slight_smile:

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.

2

Hello,

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
thanks for links, will check them.
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.
Exactly this is my idea. The PCB routing using either FMC or HSMC is not
a big deal. Even if we could set the standard for the connector used by
the FPGA developers community, then it would be easy to develop
HSMC->FMC or FMC->HSMC connector board. The question is if we could just
copy the USRP(2) hardware to the FMC/HSMC board or use other ADC/DAC
devices? I am not sure why such particular hardware was selected for
USRP, but it is possible to buy better for the same price. Ok, I may
exclude TxDAC+ from AD, which has some more advantages over a simple
DAC, but that’s it. I’ve just purchased DAC3283 (16bit/800MSPS) from
eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170641966771&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT,
so I will try its performance later.

Sincerely,
Tomas D.

3

Hi,
I would be careful buying components from E=bay for anything other than
simple prototypes. These components maybe cheap on e-bay but if you are
serious on making this a working design, you may end up spending more
time dealing with ESD damaged products, or those you can not replace in
the future.

It can be worth spending a bit more (or even ask for free samples if you
work for a large company) than saving a few $s during the initial
design.

Just my 2c learned from previous mistakes,
Farhad

4

Hi all,

On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 21:37, Justin B. [email protected]
wrote:

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://www.lyrtech.com/products/radio420x.php
http://www.limemicro.com/products.php

I just want to let everyone know that we’re working on a USRP N2x0
based design which incorporates LMS6002D instead of a traditional
daughter board. The code will appear in our clone of UHD repository as
we develop it:
https://github.com/chemeris/UHD-Mirror

I should receive EVB for LMS6002D this week, so I hope we’ll have the
code working in about a month. If there is anyone working along the
same direction we would be happy to cooperate.

–
Regards,
Alexander C…

5

On 2011.07.25 15:47, Alexander C. wrote:

http://www.limemicro.com/products.php
I just want to let everyone know that we’re working on a USRP N2x0
based design which incorporates LMS6002D instead of a traditional
daughter board. The code will appear in our clone of UHD repository as
we develop it:
https://github.com/chemeris/UHD-Mirror

I should receive EVB for LMS6002D this week, so I hope we’ll have the
code working in about a month. If there is anyone working along the
same direction we would be happy to cooperate.
Hello,
I didn’t find how much the chip itself or EVB costs? It would be great
to see the benchmark results first.

Regards,
Tomas D.

6

On 2011.07.25 10:48, Farhad A. wrote:

Just my 2c learned from previous mistakes,
Farhad

Hello,
if we are talking about a board, that potentially could be used by more
than 10-20 persons, then yes, we have to consider using proper hardware.
Let’s have a look to the minimum requirements that we have in USRP2:
ADC: 2 channels, 100MSPS, 14bits, SFDR 88dB
DAC: 2 channels, 100MSPS, 16bits, SFDR 80+ dB

Now devices on USRP2 are:
ADC: Linear Tech. LTC2284 (2ch, 105MSPS, 14bit)
Price @ Digikey: 147.6USD
Price @ Farnell: ~200USD
This one is barely on stock.

DAC: AD AD9777 (2ch, 160MSPS interpolating up to 400MSPS, 16bit, TxDAC+)
Price @ Digikey: 59.87USD
Price @ Farnell: 82.5USD

Now lets consider other choices:
ADC: TI ADS62P48 (2ch, 210MSPS, SFDR 85dB) - price @ Digikey: 176.18USD
ADC: TI ADS6244 (2ch, 105MSPS, SFDR 81dB) - price @ Digikey: 88.7USD
ADC: TI ADS6245 (2ch, 125MSPS, SFDR 83dB) - price @ Digikey 110.25USD
ADC: TI ADS4246 (2ch, 160MSPS, SFDR 87dB) - price @ Digikey 116.25USD
And TI are previewing ADS4249 (2ch, 250MSPS, SFDR 80dB) - price N/A

Prices are in quantities of single chip only!

I’ve not checked AD, Linear, etc. The question is: do we stick to the
current hardware or search for a new one?

P.S. I am not sure if I am correct using USRP2 basis. Maybe I should
switch over to N210 datasheet?

Sincerely,
Tomas D.

7

On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 22:08, Tomas D. [email protected] wrote:

browse through links
I should receive EVB for LMS6002D this week, so I hope we’ll have the
code working in about a month. If there is anyone working along the
same direction we would be happy to cooperate.

Hello,
I didn’t find how much the chip itself or EVB costs? It would be great to
see the benchmark results first.

They are available after you sign a good old NDA with LimeMicro.
We’ll do some measurements when we receive the EVB too and can share
them with the community. And then everyone will be welcome to do any
tests when we get our board ready.

–
Regards,
Alexander C…