[Discuss-gnuradio] [RFNoC] Out-of-tree module development

[Martin Braun]

As more and more people use RFNoC™, we want to make it easy for people
to actually develop and distribute RFNoC code.

For those using GNU Radio, we have some more updates: If you pull the
latest gr-ettus, it includes a tool called 'rfnocmodtool' (if you think
this sounds a lot like gr_modtool, you're right. It's based on that).

This way, you will be able to create RFNoC out-of-tree modules very
quickly, won't have to copy stuff into the the UHD and/or FPGA
repositories, and can more easily track your code and distribute it via
public git hosting services.

Version 1 of a tutorial for this is here:
https://kb.ettus.com/Getting_Started_with_RFNoC_Development

In a nutshell, this lets you do the following:
- Create an OOT module (e.g., gr-myrfnocstuff)
- Create all boilerplate for Verilog, testbenches, block controllers etc.
- Link your modules into an RFNoC design

I'm sure there'll be questions, and we'll be updating this page as we go
along.

Side note: Why are we making a new tool, and not simply using
gr_modtool? We hope that we can consolidate these in the future, but
gr_modtool is not really set up to support multiple types of OOT modules
at the moment. For now, we don't want to pollute people's systems with
stuff they don't need, so if you don't install gr-ettus, you won't get
any RFNoC-related tools installed.

Cheers,
Martin