According to this web page: http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/30024-icera-i500-is-programmable-lte
And the features of Icera's previous platforms: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia-icera-products.html On the photo from CES, Icera i500 platform has 8 processors on it, each one contains its own memory. From Icera's product feature page, each platform contains one baseband chip and one RF IC. I think the photo depicted on CES is the baseband chip only. So this SDR platform contains 8 processors, probably specialized digital signal processors that have their own unique instruction set. Icera does not provide any hardware/software development tool, e.g. compiler, assembler, or emulator. So the instruction set is not open. They provide whole baseband chip with physical/protocol layer in software, encrypted I guess. From normal user's point of view, it will be hard to hack. I know this because I am also from communication IC industry, even we have flexible processors or coprocessors, we'll make it hard to hack. :p But I won't say it's impossible, it just takes a lot of time. With those hacking time, I'd rather spend time to build a scalable computer farm that can do distributed SDR. I think the next move of GNU Radio is toward this by introducing ICE? Best Regards, Albert Huang Alex Zhang <[email protected]> writes: > Can anybody explain the difference between this softmodem and other > existing wireless baseband programmable processors? > My understanding is that, also as Marcus mentioned, it provides more > flexibility by this array of special CPUs instead of the prefixed > functions/blocks, within this chip. Otherwise, it won't bring big novelty. > > As to the ADC/DAC and RF part, maybe we need to wait for the whole SDR > solution to be unveiled. > > > On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Marcus D. Leech <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I don't have high hopes for this specific chip - I guess the IC will be >>> hard to buy and the modem feature on built devices will hard to hack, >>> lacking source and documentation for its drivers, just as Android devices >>> are hard for cyanogenmod developers to hack with. >>> >>> But these news do give some hope, the hope that more accessible high-end >>> ARMs chips like TI's and Freescales' will follow up and incorporate these >>> features in the future. Indeed, I am already working on a beaglebone-based >>> SDR and this would be great. >>> >>> It looks to me like this SoftModem chip is just an array of speciality >> CPUs. What I want to see is details of ADC/DAC and the RF-to-baseband >> transceivers -- those aren't part of the same chip. >> >> >> -- >> Marcus Leech >> Principal Investigator >> Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium >> http://www.sbrac.org >> >> >> >> >> ______________________________**_________________ >> Discuss-gnuradio mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/**listinfo/discuss-gnuradio<https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio> >> > > > > -- > > Alex, > *Dreams can come true – just believe.* > Can anybody explain the difference between this softmodem and other > existing wireless baseband programmable processors? > My understanding is that, also as Marcus mentioned, it provides more > flexibility by this array of special CPUs instead of the prefixed > functions/blocks, within this chip. Otherwise, it won't bring big > novelty. > > As to the ADC/DAC and RF part, maybe we need to wait for the whole SDR > solution to be unveiled. > > > On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Marcus D. Leech <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I don't have high hopes for this specific chip - I guess the > IC will be hard to buy and the modem feature on built devices > will hard to hack, lacking source and documentation for its > drivers, just as Android devices are hard for cyanogenmod > developers to hack with. > > But these news do give some hope, the hope that more > accessible high-end ARMs chips like TI's and Freescales' will > follow up and incorporate these features in the future. > Indeed, I am already working on a beaglebone-based SDR and > this would be great. > > > It looks to me like this SoftModem chip is just an array of > speciality CPUs. What I want to see is details of ADC/DAC and the > RF-to-baseband > transceivers -- those aren't part of the same chip. > > > -- > Marcus Leech > Principal Investigator > Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium > http://www.sbrac.org > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss-gnuradio mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio -- Albert Chun-Chieh Huang(黃俊傑) Blog: Random Notes, http://alberthuang314.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ Discuss-gnuradio mailing list [email protected] https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio
