Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Recommendations for USB 2.0 add-on PCI Cards

[Caleb Phillips]

> I'm running GNU Radio on a Dell Precision 530MT workstation under Ubuntu.  
> Unfortunately, the system only has USB 1.0 ports.  I installed an 6-port USB 
> 2.0 add-on PCI card, but I only get a maximum transfer rate of 16 Mbps when I 
> run "benchmark_usb.py" from "gnuradio-examples/python/usrp".  I also ran 
> "test_usrp_standard_tx" and "test_usrp_standard_rx" from "usrp/host/apps".  
> The transmit part worked fine, but I got a lot of over-runs on receive.  My 
> add-on card is based on the NEC chipset, which I gather is not capable of 
> achieving a maximum rate of 32 Mbps with the USRP.  Are there other cards 
> and/or chipsets that achieve 32 Mbps?  It's hard to come across a card that 
> isn't based on the NEC chipset.  Matt Ettus mentioned that the Zonet PCMCIA 
> card based on the VIA chipset works good.  Is there one in the PCI 
> form-factor that works as well?  Any suggestions are appreciated.  Thank you.

Gee, you asked this like two months ago - I'm really far behind
on the gnuradio list. Nevertheless (for the archives, I guess): After
some research, I found (and ordered) the VIA VT1621L chipset. It works
in linux and can support 2.665e+07 bytes/sec recieving and 2.317e+07
bytes/sec transmitting. You can get an add-on card that uses this
chipset for less than $20.

--
Caleb Phillips