# RFNoC -- Making FPGA design easy from GNU Radio

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfnoc-making-fpga-design-easy-from-gnu-radio/233330>\
**Category:** GNU Radio\
**Created:** [December 4, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfnoc-making-fpga-design-easy-from-gnu-radio/233330 "2014-12-04T19:54:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![addis\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@addis\_a](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/addis_a)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfnoc-making-fpga-design-easy-from-gnu-radio/233330/1 "2014-12-04T19:54:15Z")

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**Author:** ![highprob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@highprob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/highprob)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfnoc-making-fpga-design-easy-from-gnu-radio/233330/2 "2014-12-04T22:44:18Z")

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**Author:** ![highprob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@highprob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/highprob)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfnoc-making-fpga-design-easy-from-gnu-radio/233330/3 "2014-12-04T22:59:38Z")

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> Ettus R. is very excited to announce the release of RFNoC!

[…]

This is very cool. I’ve been looking forward to working with this  
development.

> Mixing and matching host-based and FPGA-based processing is transparent to the  
> user, and that processing can scale across multiple FPGAs and devices across a  
> network

Does this imply that I could run a GNU Radio application on a Zedboard,  
for instance, with the following data flows:

(1) GR on Zynq ARM → Zynq FPGA → GR on Zynq ARM → B2x0 RF/radio  
(2) GR on Zynq ARM → Zynq FPGA → GR on Zynq ARM → X3x0 FPGA →   
X3x0 RF/radio

I think (1) is similar or identical to Jonathon P.’s FPGA filter  
demo. What I’m more curious about is how easy it is to build a single GR  
flowgraph that mixes GR processing with FPGAs that live either in Zynq  
or connected 3x0 series devices. It sounds like this kind of support is  
an explicit goal of RFNoC.

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**Author:** ![highprob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@highprob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/highprob)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfnoc-making-fpga-design-easy-from-gnu-radio/233330/4 "2014-12-04T23:35:48Z")

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How does the system know that the downstream block is on host or FPGA?

On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Nowlan, Sean

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**Author:** ![highprob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@highprob](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/highprob)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rfnoc-making-fpga-design-easy-from-gnu-radio/233330/5 "2014-12-05T10:54:10Z")

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On 12/04/2014 11:33 PM, Vanush V. wrote:

> How does the system know that the downstream block is on host or FPGA?

We have our own blocks for processing on the FPGA. They handle the  
command & control of the FPGA and the transport.

M