[Discuss-gnuradio] Xilinx SP-605 board with Bitshark FMC-1RX

[Elvis Dowson]

Hi,

        

Yes, you are correct that the Xilinx DSP kit includes various DSP-type

"IP" as part of the demo
 package, but unless I'm badly mis-reading things, the cheapest such
"kit" is $1,995 from Avnet,
 and that doesnt include an ADC or DAC board.

The SP601, which is their cheapest FPGA evaluation and demo offering,
doesn't include
 much "IP" except for basic logic functions.  This board sells for
$249.00 through Avnet.

Xilinx doesn't give their IP away for free.    So if you want to use
*their* IP, you have to license
 it, and pay for it, which drives up the cost to fairly-high levels.

One possible combination is to use the Xilinx SP-605 Spartan-6 evaluation kit (USD$495) with the Epic Solutions Bitshark FMC-1RX board (USD$2500). 

You don't get the source for the FPGA, if you need that they sell it for USD$4500.

http://www.xilinx.com/products/devkits/EK-S6-SP605-G.htm

http://www.epiq-solutions.com/product_detail.php?line=Bitshark&product=Bitshark_FMC

A more expensive Virtex-6 board costs USD$ 1995. 

http://www.xilinx.com/products/devkits/EK-V6-ML605-G.htm

The USRP2, in end is still the cheapest hardware platform there is. 

Elvis Dowson