USRP vs USRP2

GNU Radio
1

Hello all,

I want to start expereiment with software defined radio but can’t make
up my mind which one of the usrp and usrp2 is the most suitable.
I am new to FPGAs but want to start playing with these as well. I use
GNU/Linux and GCC as much as I can.

Some questions:

The usrp and usrp2 uses FPGAs from different manufacturers so I assume
the development environment will differ as well. Is anyone of the two
more suited for a linux system than the other? I don’t want to pay any
license costs (and I’m glad if I can use the dev environment longer time
than a trial period… btw, I am a student).

To play around with a FPGA on a system like this, will I need the extra
size and speed xilinx spartan 3 gives me? (Maybe I want to bruteforce
some cryptos, doing some FIR filters or event wavelet transformations)

Since the usrp2 only have one tx/rx channel I would need two usrp2’s to
get the same number of tx/rx channels as the usrp and this is not
currently an affordable option. In which cases will I need two tx/rx
channels? Examples?

The usrp2 is faster in many ways. In what applications will I need the
extra speed and extra bandwidth? Examples?

Any other cool stuff I can do with one of the boards but not the other?

Are gnuradio programs written for usrp compatible with usrp2?

Thanks!

Best regards,
Manne

2

On 05/12/2010 04:37 AM, Manne Tallmarken wrote:

assume the development environment will differ as well. Is anyone of
the two more suited for a linux system than the other? I don’t want
to pay any license costs (and I’m glad if I can use the dev
environment longer time than a trial period… btw, I am a student).

The development environments are different, supplied by the vendor.
Both are available for Linux. The Altera one is free, but the Xilinx
one is for pay (there is a free one, but it doesn’t work with our
device). As a student, though, you can probably get a free copy of the
Xilinx software.

To play around with a FPGA on a system like this, will I need the
extra size and speed xilinx spartan 3 gives me? (Maybe I want to
bruteforce some cryptos, doing some FIR filters or event wavelet
transformations)

The Xilinx one has multipliers, the altera one does not.

other?

The USRP2 has a much bigger and faster fpga.

Are gnuradio programs written for usrp compatible with usrp2?

Most programs will work with both.

Matt