Philip Covington wrote: > On 2/22/07, Jim Lux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> At 10:58 AM 2/22/2007, Philip Covington wrote: >> >>> On 2/22/07, Jim Lux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> >>> I really can't blame Flex for choosing Windows. If you think the >>> support burden is bad with Windows, it would be a nightmare with >>> Linux. You would have guys trying to get the software running in >>> who-knows-what Linux distro - heck it is bad enough getting it going >>> when you settle on one distro like Ubuntu. It might not be as bad if >>> the Linux setup came pre-installed on a system from Flex or if Flex >>> integrates part of the processing on something like a mini-ITX system >>> running Linux that users hopefully would not have to touch. >>> >> On the one hand, I think this is a great idea (not just because, >> ahem, that's what I built for my JPL research project), because it >> would enforce a distinction between the UI and the radio. That is, >> assuming you made it verboten to hook up a keyboard and display to >> the Mini-ITX mobo in the radio. A mini-ITX mobo is fairly >> inexpensive ($100-200) and is at a high level of integration so the >> incremental cost of the radio would not be much more. >> >> Many, many pro test equipment pieces (Agilent, Rhode+Schwarz, >> Tektronix, etc.) now have a fairly box-stock mobo in them (you can >> tell because the back panel has the familiar arrangement of >> connectors), or, at least something that strongly resembles a >> PC. Interestingly, they run Windows XP embedded or WinCE, and I have >> yet to have a "windows crash" in many hundreds, if not thousands, of >> hours of operation, so they are clearly paying attention to "locked >> down" configuration, etc. They're a far cry from a wideopen WinXP >> home which you use as the computer equivelent your "daily driver and >> grocery getter". >> >> But, the other problem is that philsophically, it makes it a bit more >> difficult for people to tinker. Realistically, the number of people >> who are actually tinkering is a very small fraction of SDR1000 >> owners, but there a huge number of people who like to have the >> latent tinker capability, "just in case". (why else would we all >> have garages, storerooms, boxes, etc. full of parts for that unknown >> future project... The odds that I will actually ever use that Z80 >> based S100 system out in the garage are vanishingly small, but out >> there it stays, largely for sentimental reasons...) >> >> You're also up against the "why should I buy another computer when I >> have a garage full of perfectly good computers". >> >> Jim, W6RMK >> > > This is something I have been interested in doing for quite some time. > Unfortunately I got sidetracked on other things for HPSDR. I'd > really like to have a mini-ITX board running Linux with the > DttSP/sdr-core running in it. As Frank has indicated, > networking/remoting support is already there in the Linux version. > With no GUI to support, the processing demands on the mini-ITX box are > greatly reduced thanks to the efficiency of the DttSP code. Then it > is just a matter of whipping up a batch of your favorite platform GUI > code on a networked computer or maybe even supporting real knobs, > switches, and a LCD screen with the mini-ITX (all easier on Linux). > > Many possibilities... too little time... > > Phil N8VB > > I like this possibility the best. However I do not think an *nix platform is the best choice. As a side note, the porting of the SDR GUI/DSP code to Linux would be all that simple having written code for *nix system for many years.
Since the mini-ITX would handle only the DSP and/or some control code, I would opt for a mini-dispatcher optimized for this. Don't get me wrong, *nix systems are very good for a lot of things, but nearly real time processing is not one of them unless it paired down to the veriest of bare essentials. There is simply far too much over head and the I/O subsystem still designed as though it is connected to DECTAPE :-( . Interrupt handling is very weak and non-blocking I/O can be a real pain. As far as a Linux version of the current SDR code. Not only do you have to think about which flavor it will be running on (Ubuntu, Red Hat, Fedora, vanilla Debian, Sussi, BSD ...etc) but also which release. Also Linux support for media is still very thin. My main machine has an M44 card in it. This is supported by the ALSA drivers. Some apps can use it but quite a few cannot. There currently is no ALSA support for Firewire attached audio cards. You have to use a raw Firewire I/O library and do low level I/O programming. I would also totally divorce the GUI from the DSP code so I could run the DSP code at the highest priority and use any one of a number of inter process communications APIs such as sockets or semaphores or shared memory. Oh and interrupt driven asynchronous I/O is also a pain in any *nix system. The GUI..how this is writtem, depends on which desktop is being run. GNOME or KDE or Novell's Xglx or any number of more obscure desktop environments. All of which require the GUI to be built on them in order to take advantage of each ones libraries. Or at least have the correct version of these libraries available to run the GUI. That is unless you write the GUI with Athena widgets only. (Yuck !!!!) Yes I would say to get the SDR code to run have ways decently under Linux, the Flex guys definitely have their work cut out for them. Chris WA4CM > _______________________________________________ > FlexRadio mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz > Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ > FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ > > FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ > -- ==================================================================== Chris Maukonen "Charley brown. You're the only Sr. Systems Programmer Person I know who can take a University of Central Florida perfectly wonderful time of the Orlando, Fla. year like Christmas and turn it Work: (407) 823 5460 into a problem. I guess Lucy's [EMAIL PROTECTED] right. Of all the Charley Browns' in the world, you're the Charley Browniest." Linus Van Pelt All of the animals except for man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it.-- Samuel Butler -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.flex-radio.biz/pipermail/flexradio_flex-radio.biz/attachments/20070222/f9c9716e/attachment.html _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/
