Many can see in the SDR-X branch in the PowerSDR svn repository and that some changes have been made to the sdr code to accommodate the new Flex 5000.
I would like to discuss these, why they have been done, why they will NOT be there long term, why we are still following the basic vision of Frank when he provided both the V1 and V2 architecture based on our early joint work on C language software radio. I provided a lot of the earliest dsp code but Frank turned it into a masterpiece. It still is. The Flex 5000 is an EXTREMELY complex instrument. It is utterly amazing to me that Gerald has all of its pieces working. There is lots to do, but it will work and work beautifully. << IT IS NOT THE SDR-X>> and will have fewer capabilities than the SDR-X will have. But on the other hand, it will sell initially anyway for under $3000 and the SDR-X will be well north of $10000. The name SDR-X in the repository WAS A RUSE and many fell in including friends of the family. ;-) . I am developing many new dsp algorithms just to take maximal advantage of the myriad capabilities of the Flex 5000. The good news is that with the rapidly approaching delivery of unit 1, Wachsman and I have found that much of the same code can be applied to the SDR-1000. There are places where we will have to supplement the SDR-1000 with either an ECO (mod) or external but trivial piece of hardware to accomplish some of the tasks, but most of it is achievable. Eric, Frank, and I decided that it was just too much to try and do all of this and all new code for EVERY function in the radio and make it to market THIS YEAR. Given Frank's recommendation, we absolutely jumped into this with both feet and removed/changed/etc. whatever it took to get a serious radio, easy to support, with no impediments to performance on the market by Dayton. Eric and I are working at a breakneck pace for this to happen. ;-) Gerald really wanted to stop manufacturing the SDR-1000. The Flex5000 is a ton of lessons learned and a lot of new capability and even though it has many more components than the SDR-1000, it is a huge step up in manufacturing ease. It is almost completely surface mount for example. I will leave it to Flex to provide further description. In the "SDR-X" branch the really huge differences are: 1) The update pipe mechanism has been completely tossed out. 2) There are multiple sinks and sources feeding the processing task. 3) The processing task has 3 subtasks, 2 receivers and 1 transmitter. 4) The mon task is gone (this has been transported to DttSP V2.0 by Frank) 5) The meter and spectrum threads no longer exist. The update mechanism has been completely tossed out because it tuned out to be an impediment to 3). THIS IS A RETROGRADE STEP. It is inconsistent with our desire to do the "ultimate" in remote operation. You WILL be able to operate remotely but the mechanism will NOT be a significant enhancment over that done by many with PowerSDR and DttSP/Linux shells now. I found that 5) was AGAIN, after I had learned this lesson twice already, blocking the processing thread. Because they necessarily run at a lower priority, if they grabbed the ball, they held on to it for dear life and the pops and groans would occur. Had we followed Frank's separate process approach, this could not happen. It was too late and we are too far down the road to delivery. We used a scalpel to remove the impediment. Now, all of that works, and thread priority rather than semaphore blocks take care of the problem. The meter and spectrum CAN NOT update while the dsp wants to run as it will preempt them. END OF STORY. The multiple sinks and sources are provisions for the new firewire controller audio and the IF's in the Flex 5000 series which will be shared with the SDR-X series. For the Flex 5000, we need SIX sinks or sources. As you can see from the the early advertisements, the Flex 5000 is a fully duplex radio. That easily explains why you need two of the three processing channels (two sinks, two sources). You can tell the old AMSAT guy beat up on Gerald pretty hard about having this capability. It is there in spades. Between KM0T and I, we have beat up on Gerald with all hands, feet, and head butts ;-) about how many types of connections to support on the back. It will take a month to write the manual on that alone! ;-) . I am so excited about this and its potential for AMSAT/satellite types, VHF/UHF microwavers but others will become apparent. Let me go on:. The 3rd processing thread is needed to support the Sub RX. The Sub RX, which will be an add on option, is a COMPLETE DUPLICATE of the receiver already on the main board. The only difference is that the DDS based sythesizer does not need as many channels so a slightly different (but still as spectrally pure) version is on the 2nd receiver. It is the same very high quality receiver as on the main board otherwise. It is a completely separate IF. You talk about SO2R in a box? This is it. AND, all of those antenna connections I mentioned will support that as well. If you hook two separate antennas to the Flex 5000 (all models) we are planning on coherent combining as our first effort to do the full many channel combining which will be part of the SDR-X. This makes complete sense for us to develop the major capability to be added to the SDR-X in the 5000 before THOUSANDS of dollars per radio are purchased. This will provide lessons learned, much experience, etc. This makes complete business and even practical scientific/engineering sense to me. The processing task is divided into 2 receivers and one transmitter and we needed intimate control of this. When the decision was made to do 1) above, and based on a promise I made to Frank not to do different branches of DttSP v2.0 for windows, I forked. THIS IS TEMPORARY. We will NOT have the erlang core and separate process model running when the Flex 5000 is released. On the other hand, by anyone's definition, when this thing hits the streets, it will be a bloody revolution. All of this internecine disturbance is a "family discussion" best held at the dinner table. It has NOTHING AT ALL to do with the quality of the effort or where we intend it going. Me, my friends, my employer, and sponsors will be buying MANY Flex 5000's. I CANNOT DO MY WORK ON WINDOWS. LINUX WILL BE SUPPORTED ALONG WITH OSX AND THIS YEAR. After the 5000 gets a head of steam and steam rolls the competition (probability ONE POINT OHH), the SDR-X work will begin in earnest. It simply must. It enables ALL of the vision we have but it might be a $20,000 radio. That just did not seem to be a reasonable replacement for the SDR-1000. ;-) . The president of a major amateur radio organization pulled me aside and asked me had Gerald lost his mind. I assured him when the new radio came out, he would know that Gerald had not. Indeed, I am as proud of Gerald as I have ever been. I am dang proud he, Eric, John, Frank Brickle, and all of the other people associated with this are my friends and allow me to play. That is good, because no one else outside of my wife and my cat will do it anymore without gritted teeth and even the cat occasionally scratches me for good measure. ;-) . Bob N4HY _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
