Peter, The software is full duplex, plus it uses both I & Q signals for both TX & RX. Therefore the communications link has to simultaneously handle 4 real-time, high-speed streams (threads) of digitized audio plus digital control signals. The is for the FLEX-3000 or the FLEX-5000 without RX2 installed. The FLEX-5000 with RX2 requires 6 audio streams plus control.
To the others who got into this discussion more recently: At the time that the FLEX-5000 was being designed, USB 3.0 was not a reality & USB 2.0 was simply not fast enough to handle the data transfer rates required. At the time, 1394 was the best option. Is USB 3.0 fast enough to handle the required data rate? I don't know. But to switch now to USB 3.0 or to TCP/IP (Ethernet) would require major redesign of the hardware. Existing radios would not be able to be easily retrofitted to use the new technology. Plus a major software effort would be required to support the new communications method. Could it be done? Of course. Is it reasonable to do so? I think not. 73, Ray, K9DUR http://k9dur.info _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist who are using alpha and beta versions of the software.
