# Software Compatibility among USRP2, N and X Series

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/software-compatibility-among-usrp2-n-and-x-series/232852>\
**Category:** GNU Radio\
**Created:** [October 31, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/software-compatibility-among-usrp2-n-and-x-series/232852 "2014-10-31T17:30:30Z")\
**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:** [October 31, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/software-compatibility-among-usrp2-n-and-x-series/232852/1 "2014-10-31T17:30:30Z")

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Dear all,

I found most existed projects were based on USRP2 and some current  
on-going  
project are using N200/210. It seems to me that both of these two models  
have similar hardware specification, but USRP2 is out of market, isn’t  
it?

If a GNURadio based software packages was developed for USRP2, does it  
also  
works compatible with N200/210? How about the X300/310 model?

Additionally, are there any other hardware compatibility issues among  
these  
products?

Many thanks in advance.

Best regards,  
Jiayi

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**Author:** ![ZhangS\_Jiayi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e95f7d/32.png) [@ZhangS\_Jiayi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ZhangS_Jiayi)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/software-compatibility-among-usrp2-n-and-x-series/232852/2 "2014-10-31T20:06:11Z")

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Jiayi,

if you were using UHD, you’ll be fine. Apart for device-specific  
settings, you can simply switch hardware.

Cheers,  
M

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**Author:** ![ZhangS\_Jiayi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e95f7d/32.png) [@ZhangS\_Jiayi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ZhangS_Jiayi)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/software-compatibility-among-usrp2-n-and-x-series/232852/3 "2014-10-31T21:05:49Z")

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Hi Jiayi,

all USRPs use the UHD driver framework; from an application’s  
perspective, it really doesn’t matter whether you’re using a USRP 1, 2,  
N200, X300, B200 or the integrated radios of the E-Series. Normally,  
applications do not even care what kind of USRP is connected 🙂

The only thing that could go wrong is that if the GNU Radio project was  
based on libusrp or libusrp2, the predecessors of UHD, it won’t work  
with modern hardware. But then again, that software is very old, and  
won’t work with modern GNU Radio anyway, and numerous examples have  
shown that compilation of software that old on modern systems is  
complicated due to missing dependencies.

The question you need to ask is whether that software uses UHD (in the  
shape of gr-uhd) – if that’s the case, it will work with any USRP of  
the past and the foreseeable future.

> Additionally, are there any other hardware compatibility issues among  
> these products?

Well, a USRP N200 is not a B200 is not an X310… as they all have  
different specs, obviously they all can’t fit the same needs.

Greetings,  
Marcus

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**Author:** ![ZhangS\_Jiayi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e95f7d/32.png) [@ZhangS\_Jiayi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ZhangS_Jiayi)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 9:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/software-compatibility-among-usrp2-n-and-x-series/232852/4 "2014-10-31T21:34:27Z")

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Jiayi,

Generally, the UHD driver hides the difference, so the Ettus products  
are interchangeable. There aren’t too many projects that are specific to  
model, unless you’re looking at FPGA mods. But there are some  
differences (or there wouldn’t be separate products) having to do with  
frequency ranges, sample rates, etc., that still might affect GNURadio  
programs. It depends.

- Jeff

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ZhangS\_Jiayi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e95f7d/32.png) [@ZhangS\_Jiayi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ZhangS_Jiayi)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/software-compatibility-among-usrp2-n-and-x-series/232852/5 "2014-10-31T21:45:48Z")

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On 10/30/2014 03:34 PM, Zhang, Jiayi wrote:

> Additionally, are there any other hardware compatibility issues among
> 
> * * *
> 
> Discuss-gnuradio mailing list  
> [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
> [Discuss-gnuradio Info Page](https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio)  
> The UHD driver layer abstracts a lot of the device-specific stuff, so  
> many applications will work either with no changes, or just a few minor  
> parameter changes.