Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] USRP vs USRP2

[Matt Ettus]

On 05/12/2010 04:37 AM, Manne Tallmarken wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I want to start expereiment with software defined radio but can't
> make up my mind which one of the usrp and usrp2 is the most
> suitable. I am new to FPGAs but want to start playing with these as
> well. I use GNU/Linux and GCC as much as I can.
>
> Some questions:
>
> The usrp and usrp2 uses FPGAs from different manufacturers so I
> assume the development environment will differ as well. Is anyone of
> the two more suited for a linux system than the other? I don't want
> to pay any license costs (and I'm glad if I can use the dev
> environment longer time than a trial period... btw, I am a student).

The development environments are different, supplied by the vendor. 
Both are available for Linux.  The Altera one is free, but the Xilinx 
one is for pay (there is a free one, but it doesn't work with our 
device).  As a student, though, you can probably get a free copy of the 
Xilinx software.

> To play around with a FPGA on a system like this, will I need the
> extra size and speed xilinx spartan 3 gives me? (Maybe I want to
> bruteforce some cryptos, doing some FIR filters or event wavelet
> transformations)

The Xilinx one has multipliers, the altera one does not.

> Since the usrp2 only have one tx/rx channel I would need two usrp2's
> to get the same number of tx/rx channels as the usrp and this is not
> currently an affordable option. In which cases will I need two tx/rx
> channels? Examples?
>
> The usrp2 is faster in many ways. In what applications will I need
> the extra speed and extra bandwidth? Examples?
>
> Any other cool stuff I can do with one of the boards but not the
> other?

The USRP2 has a much bigger and faster fpga.

> Are gnuradio programs written for usrp compatible with usrp2?

Most programs will work with both.

Matt