> -----Original Message----- > From: Duane - N9DG [mailto:n...@yahoo.com] > Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 4:38 PM > To: W7CE; FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz; Lux, James P > Subject: Re: [Flexradio] On interfaces, historical and > otherwise.. RE: First look at the FLEX-3000 production units > > > --- On Fri, 2/20/09, Lux, James P <james.p....@jpl.nasa.gov> wrote: > <snip> > > > Or, you start treating radios like PCs. Expect to replace > it every 5 > > years or so. Even if you fork out $4800 for a Flex5C every > 5 years, > > that's about $1K/yr. > > FWIW I don't think it will come to that. What I envision > happening is that the writing will be on the wall for when > new PC HW cannot be made to support the PC based SDR radios > that we have today. The HW specific software will also be > frozen by that time too. So at that point many people will > just start stock piling the needed PC systems and PC parts to > support these radios well into the future. That will be > pretty much equivalent to what many have done with vacuum > tubes in the 70's and 80's to keep yesterdays boat anchors > going now. And I really don't think we need to start filling > closets with "obsolete" PC HW to support todays SDR's for > quite awhile yet. No need to jump the gun on that one...
You're right.. I don't see this happening instantly. And to a certain extent, most "obsolete" SDRs (in the sense of needing an "obsolete PC" to operate them) will just be junked, like a huge number of old tube/transistor rigs of yesteryear. The few SDR boatanchors will be maintained with stashes of heritage PCs, etc. (so much for throwing away my current PC.. I'll be able to unload it at a hamfest in 2030 to someone trying to run a boatanchor SDR1K, and I'll even have a copy of SDRConsole software on floppy!) The other thing I see happening is a move to always having some computer in the box with the radio. High performance mobos are so inexpensive now, there's really no reason not to, especially if the "command" mechanism is somewhat abstracted and interface independent. If all the "in radio" PC needs to do is manage the radio hardware and DSP, but not the UI, then it doesn't need fancy graphics cards, etc. Jim, W6RMK _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
