[USRP-users] SDR environment with USRP & external FPGA
Greetings, I have 2 USRP front-ends - N210 and N310. I want to develop a GNSS Receiver inside my FGPA - xilinx ZCU102 - and use one of the USRP devices only as the front-end. The receiver is quite large so I need an external board for all the signal processing chain. The receiver has two implementations - software-only & hybrid. In hybrid mode some tasks of the processing chain are accelerated in hardware. The software-only version of the receiver running on my ZCU102 is able to configure the N210 and read packets over ethernet correctly. However, with the hybrid version of the receiver, I want to read the digital IQ samples from the front end directly in hardware. For example, I am able to do this with the ZCU102 connected to FMComm2/3 using the FMC connection on the FPGA. AD provides HDL reference designs to support communication between multiple front-ends and multiple FPGAs. Is there a similar way to read the digital samples directly in hardware using the N210? The N210 only has the ethernet and a MIMO port. Thanks in advance. ___ USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-le...@lists.ettus.com
[USRP-users] Re: SDR environment with USRP & external FPGA
Thanks for the response. I don´t want to run the software component of the GNSS receiver on my computer, while connected to the N310 for heterogeneous processing - if that's what you're saying. I want an edge device running embedded linux, like I already have on my zcu102, to run both sw and hw components. The first stages of the processing chain are in hardware so I don´t want to read samples from the front-end at the application level. I want to read samples directly from my hardware block design, do some heavy processing and deliver the results to the software application. I can do all of this using AD front-ends and their HDL reference designs. Is there any support to do this using N210 or N310? Thanks again. On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 at 15:15, Marcus Müller wrote: > Note that the N310's FPGA might actually be large enough to fit in (parts > of) a GNSS receiver, especially if you remove the DUC chain of the TX path, > in case you don't need that. RFNoC is Ettus' framework for extending the > FPGA functionality, especially made for such use cases. > > Note that even in RFNoC you get a stream of samples from the radio > frontend, which you basically paid NI/Ettus for to design it for you, so > that you don't have to worry about how to talk to the physical hardware and > can care about signal processing :) > > Cheers, > Marcus > > On 03.01.23 16:11, Marcus Müller wrote: > > Hi Mr Pereira, > > the directest access you get to samples in the N210 is the ethernet > connection – and that has no downside for GNSS applications, as the VITA49 > samples fully represent the RF signal, thanks to Shannon-Nyquist. > > That is, of course, unless you start modifying the FPGA image of the N210, > and make it a completely different product. It's kind of unlikely you want > to do that. > > Greetings, > Marcus > > On 03.01.23 14:25, Pedro Pereira wrote: > > Greetings, > > I have 2 USRP front-ends - N210 and N310. I want to develop a GNSS > Receiver inside my FGPA - xilinx ZCU102 - and use one of the USRP devices > only as the front-end. The receiver is quite large so I need an external > board for all the signal processing chain. The receiver has two > implementations - software-only & hybrid. In hybrid mode some tasks of the > processing chain are accelerated in hardware. > > The software-only version of the receiver running on my ZCU102 is able to > configure the N210 and read packets over ethernet correctly. However, with > the hybrid version of the receiver, I want to read the digital IQ samples > from the front end directly in hardware. > > For example, I am able to do this with the ZCU102 connected to FMComm2/3 > using the FMC connection on the FPGA. AD provides HDL reference designs to > support communication between multiple front-ends and multiple FPGAs. > > Is there a similar way to read the digital samples directly in hardware > using the N210? The N210 only has the ethernet and a MIMO port. > > Thanks in advance. > > > > ___ > USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com > To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-le...@lists.ettus.com > > ___ > USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com > To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-le...@lists.ettus.com > ___ USRP-users mailing list -- usrp-users@lists.ettus.com To unsubscribe send an email to usrp-users-le...@lists.ettus.com
[USRP-users] Re: SDR environment with USRP & external FPGA
> > If you're asking "can you make your ZCU102 code run on the N310?" > possibly. There's a dual-core ARM CPU running Linux, and > a large FPGA fabric. > Is there any documentation for doing this? My receiver is implemented in c++, I think I would have to implement device drivers to read data from the hardware to the software application. I only found documentation for importing standard/custom hardware IP blocks to gnuradio. On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 at 16:36, Marcus D. Leech wrote: > On 03/01/2023 10:54, Pedro Pereira wrote: > > Thanks for the response. > > I don´t want to run the software component of the GNSS receiver on my > computer, while connected to the N310 for heterogeneous processing - if > that's what you're saying. > I want an edge device running embedded linux, like I already have on my > zcu102, to run both sw and hw components. > > The first stages of the processing chain are in hardware so I don´t want > to read samples from the front-end at the application level. I want to read > samples directly from my hardware block design, do some heavy processing > and deliver the results to the software application. > I can do all of this using AD front-ends and their HDL reference designs. > Is there any support to do this using N210 or N310? > > Thanks again. > > It's still not entirely clear what it is you're asking. > > The N310 has a Zynq FPGA + 2 AD9371 radios + 2 SFP+ network ports. > > This makes it somewhat similar to your ZCU102, but with radios already > built-in. > > If you're asking "can you make your ZCU102 code run on the N310?" > possibly. There's a dual-core ARM CPU running Linux, and > a large FPGA fabric. > > If you're asking "can I make my ZCU102 acquire samples from either N310 or > N210?" -- given that your ZCU102 has some SFP+ > ports that could be configured for 1GiGe (or even 10GiGe in the case of > N310) -- it seems likely that you could port UHD to > the Linux ARM CPU on the ZCU102, and then you could talk to either the > N210 or N310 via the network ports from your ZCU102. > > > On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 at 15:15, Marcus Müller > wrote: > >> Note that the N310's FPGA might actually be large enough to fit in (parts >> of) a GNSS receiver, especially if you remove the DUC chain of the TX path, >> in case you don't need that. RFNoC is Ettus' framework for extending the >> FPGA functionality, especially made for such use cases. >> >> Note that even in RFNoC you get a stream of samples from the radio >> frontend, which you basically paid NI/Ettus for to design it for you, so >> that you don't have to worry about how to talk to the physical hardware and >> can care about signal processing :) >> >> Cheers, >> Marcus >> >> On 03.01.23 16:11, Marcus Müller wrote: >> >> Hi Mr Pereira, >> >> the directest access you get to samples in the N210 is the ethernet >> connection – and that has no downside for GNSS applications, as the VITA49 >> samples fully represent the RF signal, thanks to Shannon-Nyquist. >> >> That is, of course, unless you start modifying the FPGA image of the >> N210, and make it a completely different product. It's kind of unlikely you >> want to do that. >> >> Greetings, >> Marcus >> >> On 03.01.23 14:25, Pedro Pereira wrote: >> >> Greetings, >> >> I have 2 USRP front-ends - N210 and N310. I want to develop a GNSS >> Receiver inside my FGPA - xilinx ZCU102 - and use one of the USRP devices >> only as the front-end. The receiver is quite large so I need an external >> board for all the signal processing chain. The receiver has two >> implementations - software-only & hybrid. In hybrid mode some tasks of the >> processing chain are accelerated in hardware. >> >> The software-only version of the receiver running on my ZCU102 is able to >> configure the N210 and read packets over ethernet correctly. However, with >> the hybrid version of the receiver, I want to read the digital IQ samples >> from the front end directly in hardware. >> >> For example, I am able to do this with the ZCU102 connected to FMComm2/3 >> using the FMC connection on the FPGA. AD provides HDL reference designs to >> support communication between multiple front-ends and multiple FPGAs. >> >> Is there a similar way to read the digital samples directly in hardware >> using the N210? The N210 only has the ethernet and a MIMO port. >> >> Thanks in advance. >> >> >> >> ___ >> USRP
[USRP-users] Re: SDR environment with USRP & external FPGA
> > it seems likely that you could port UHD to the Linux ARM CPU on the > ZCU102, and then you could talk to either the N210 or N310 via the network > ports from your ZCU102. > As I said, I have an SW-only version of my receiver running on the ZCU102 and communicating with the USRP successfully. But the problem is I get the samples from the application level. In the Hybrid version of my receiver, I don't want to receive samples at the application level. As I said, I want to read directly in my hardware block design, in the ZCU102. On Wed, 4 Jan 2023 at 19:06, Pedro Pereira wrote: > If you're asking "can you make your ZCU102 code run on the N310?" >> possibly. There's a dual-core ARM CPU running Linux, and >> a large FPGA fabric. >> > > Is there any documentation for doing this? My receiver is implemented in > c++, I think I would have to implement device drivers to read data from the > hardware to the software application. > I only found documentation for importing standard/custom hardware IP > blocks to gnuradio. > > On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 at 16:36, Marcus D. Leech > wrote: > >> On 03/01/2023 10:54, Pedro Pereira wrote: >> >> Thanks for the response. >> >> I don´t want to run the software component of the GNSS receiver on my >> computer, while connected to the N310 for heterogeneous processing - if >> that's what you're saying. >> I want an edge device running embedded linux, like I already have on my >> zcu102, to run both sw and hw components. >> >> The first stages of the processing chain are in hardware so I don´t want >> to read samples from the front-end at the application level. I want to read >> samples directly from my hardware block design, do some heavy processing >> and deliver the results to the software application. >> I can do all of this using AD front-ends and their HDL reference designs. >> Is there any support to do this using N210 or N310? >> >> Thanks again. >> >> It's still not entirely clear what it is you're asking. >> >> The N310 has a Zynq FPGA + 2 AD9371 radios + 2 SFP+ network ports. >> >> This makes it somewhat similar to your ZCU102, but with radios already >> built-in. >> >> If you're asking "can you make your ZCU102 code run on the N310?" >> possibly. There's a dual-core ARM CPU running Linux, and >> a large FPGA fabric. >> >> If you're asking "can I make my ZCU102 acquire samples from either N310 >> or N210?" -- given that your ZCU102 has some SFP+ >> ports that could be configured for 1GiGe (or even 10GiGe in the case of >> N310) -- it seems likely that you could port UHD to >> the Linux ARM CPU on the ZCU102, and then you could talk to either the >> N210 or N310 via the network ports from your ZCU102. >> >> >> On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 at 15:15, Marcus Müller >> wrote: >> >>> Note that the N310's FPGA might actually be large enough to fit in >>> (parts of) a GNSS receiver, especially if you remove the DUC chain of the >>> TX path, in case you don't need that. RFNoC is Ettus' framework for >>> extending the FPGA functionality, especially made for such use cases. >>> >>> Note that even in RFNoC you get a stream of samples from the radio >>> frontend, which you basically paid NI/Ettus for to design it for you, so >>> that you don't have to worry about how to talk to the physical hardware and >>> can care about signal processing :) >>> >>> Cheers, >>> Marcus >>> >>> On 03.01.23 16:11, Marcus Müller wrote: >>> >>> Hi Mr Pereira, >>> >>> the directest access you get to samples in the N210 is the ethernet >>> connection – and that has no downside for GNSS applications, as the VITA49 >>> samples fully represent the RF signal, thanks to Shannon-Nyquist. >>> >>> That is, of course, unless you start modifying the FPGA image of the >>> N210, and make it a completely different product. It's kind of unlikely you >>> want to do that. >>> >>> Greetings, >>> Marcus >>> >>> On 03.01.23 14:25, Pedro Pereira wrote: >>> >>> Greetings, >>> >>> I have 2 USRP front-ends - N210 and N310. I want to develop a GNSS >>> Receiver inside my FGPA - xilinx ZCU102 - and use one of the USRP devices >>> only as the front-end. The receiver is quite large so I need an external >>> board for all the signal processing chain. The receiver has two >>> implementation
[USRP-users] Re: SDR environment with USRP & external FPGA
> > What role, then, would the N310 play? The N310 will be the front end, and the ZCU102 the backbone of the receiver. Having a very large implementation in hardware to track signals from all satellite constellations at various frequency bands. I doubt that the N310's FPGA could accommodate all the hardware designs. On Wed, 4 Jan 2023 at 19:26, Marcus D. Leech wrote: > On 04/01/2023 14:06, Pedro Pereira wrote: > > If you're asking "can you make your ZCU102 code run on the N310?" >> possibly. There's a dual-core ARM CPU running Linux, and >> a large FPGA fabric. >> > > Is there any documentation for doing this? My receiver is implemented in > c++, I think I would have to implement device drivers to read data from the > hardware to the software application. > I only found documentation for importing standard/custom hardware IP > blocks to gnuradio. > > I'm still confused. You still want to use the ZCU102 hardware? What > role, then, would the N310 play? This is a use-case that > nobody at Ettus/NI has addressed, and, indeed, it's unlikely that anyone > on this list has tried to address this (confusing) > use case. > > > > On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 at 16:36, Marcus D. Leech > wrote: > >> On 03/01/2023 10:54, Pedro Pereira wrote: >> >> Thanks for the response. >> >> I don´t want to run the software component of the GNSS receiver on my >> computer, while connected to the N310 for heterogeneous processing - if >> that's what you're saying. >> I want an edge device running embedded linux, like I already have on my >> zcu102, to run both sw and hw components. >> >> The first stages of the processing chain are in hardware so I don´t want >> to read samples from the front-end at the application level. I want to read >> samples directly from my hardware block design, do some heavy processing >> and deliver the results to the software application. >> I can do all of this using AD front-ends and their HDL reference designs. >> Is there any support to do this using N210 or N310? >> >> Thanks again. >> >> It's still not entirely clear what it is you're asking. >> >> The N310 has a Zynq FPGA + 2 AD9371 radios + 2 SFP+ network ports. >> >> This makes it somewhat similar to your ZCU102, but with radios already >> built-in. >> >> If you're asking "can you make your ZCU102 code run on the N310?" >> possibly. There's a dual-core ARM CPU running Linux, and >> a large FPGA fabric. >> >> If you're asking "can I make my ZCU102 acquire samples from either N310 >> or N210?" -- given that your ZCU102 has some SFP+ >> ports that could be configured for 1GiGe (or even 10GiGe in the case of >> N310) -- it seems likely that you could port UHD to >> the Linux ARM CPU on the ZCU102, and then you could talk to either the >> N210 or N310 via the network ports from your ZCU102. >> >> >> On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 at 15:15, Marcus Müller >> wrote: >> >>> Note that the N310's FPGA might actually be large enough to fit in >>> (parts of) a GNSS receiver, especially if you remove the DUC chain of the >>> TX path, in case you don't need that. RFNoC is Ettus' framework for >>> extending the FPGA functionality, especially made for such use cases. >>> >>> Note that even in RFNoC you get a stream of samples from the radio >>> frontend, which you basically paid NI/Ettus for to design it for you, so >>> that you don't have to worry about how to talk to the physical hardware and >>> can care about signal processing :) >>> >>> Cheers, >>> Marcus >>> >>> On 03.01.23 16:11, Marcus Müller wrote: >>> >>> Hi Mr Pereira, >>> >>> the directest access you get to samples in the N210 is the ethernet >>> connection – and that has no downside for GNSS applications, as the VITA49 >>> samples fully represent the RF signal, thanks to Shannon-Nyquist. >>> >>> That is, of course, unless you start modifying the FPGA image of the >>> N210, and make it a completely different product. It's kind of unlikely you >>> want to do that. >>> >>> Greetings, >>> Marcus >>> >>> On 03.01.23 14:25, Pedro Pereira wrote: >>> >>> Greetings, >>> >>> I have 2 USRP front-ends - N210 and N310. I want to develop a GNSS >>> Receiver inside my FGPA - xilinx ZCU102 - and use one of the USRP devices >>> only as the front-end. The receiver
[USRP-users] Re: SDR environment with USRP & external FPGA
> > You effectively want to implement what UHD does, but in FPGA code on your > ZCU102. Yes, I could replicate the UHD HDL implementation and try to config and read the samples from the N310, without using the UHD c++ driver. Essentially the receiver has a SW and HW component. The data source of the HW component is the front-end (N310), and the data source for the SW component is the output of the HW component. On Wed, 4 Jan 2023 at 19:31, Pedro Pereira wrote: > What role, then, would the N310 play? > > The N310 will be the front end, and the ZCU102 the backbone of the > receiver. Having a very large implementation in hardware to track signals > from all satellite constellations at various frequency bands. I doubt that > the N310's FPGA could accommodate all the hardware designs. > > > On Wed, 4 Jan 2023 at 19:26, Marcus D. Leech > wrote: > >> On 04/01/2023 14:06, Pedro Pereira wrote: >> >> If you're asking "can you make your ZCU102 code run on the N310?" >>> possibly. There's a dual-core ARM CPU running Linux, and >>> a large FPGA fabric. >>> >> >> Is there any documentation for doing this? My receiver is implemented in >> c++, I think I would have to implement device drivers to read data from the >> hardware to the software application. >> I only found documentation for importing standard/custom hardware IP >> blocks to gnuradio. >> >> I'm still confused. You still want to use the ZCU102 hardware? What >> role, then, would the N310 play? This is a use-case that >> nobody at Ettus/NI has addressed, and, indeed, it's unlikely that >> anyone on this list has tried to address this (confusing) >> use case. >> >> >> >> On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 at 16:36, Marcus D. Leech >> wrote: >> >>> On 03/01/2023 10:54, Pedro Pereira wrote: >>> >>> Thanks for the response. >>> >>> I don´t want to run the software component of the GNSS receiver on my >>> computer, while connected to the N310 for heterogeneous processing - if >>> that's what you're saying. >>> I want an edge device running embedded linux, like I already have on my >>> zcu102, to run both sw and hw components. >>> >>> The first stages of the processing chain are in hardware so I don´t want >>> to read samples from the front-end at the application level. I want to read >>> samples directly from my hardware block design, do some heavy processing >>> and deliver the results to the software application. >>> I can do all of this using AD front-ends and their HDL reference >>> designs. Is there any support to do this using N210 or N310? >>> >>> Thanks again. >>> >>> It's still not entirely clear what it is you're asking. >>> >>> The N310 has a Zynq FPGA + 2 AD9371 radios + 2 SFP+ network ports. >>> >>> This makes it somewhat similar to your ZCU102, but with radios already >>> built-in. >>> >>> If you're asking "can you make your ZCU102 code run on the N310?" >>> possibly. There's a dual-core ARM CPU running Linux, and >>> a large FPGA fabric. >>> >>> If you're asking "can I make my ZCU102 acquire samples from either N310 >>> or N210?" -- given that your ZCU102 has some SFP+ >>> ports that could be configured for 1GiGe (or even 10GiGe in the case >>> of N310) -- it seems likely that you could port UHD to >>> the Linux ARM CPU on the ZCU102, and then you could talk to either the >>> N210 or N310 via the network ports from your ZCU102. >>> >>> >>> On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 at 15:15, Marcus Müller >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Note that the N310's FPGA might actually be large enough to fit in >>>> (parts of) a GNSS receiver, especially if you remove the DUC chain of the >>>> TX path, in case you don't need that. RFNoC is Ettus' framework for >>>> extending the FPGA functionality, especially made for such use cases. >>>> >>>> Note that even in RFNoC you get a stream of samples from the radio >>>> frontend, which you basically paid NI/Ettus for to design it for you, so >>>> that you don't have to worry about how to talk to the physical hardware and >>>> can care about signal processing :) >>>> >>>> Cheers, >>>> Marcus >>>> >>>> On 03.01.23 16:11, Marcus Müller wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi Mr Pereira, >>>> >>&g
