Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Synchronous blocks

[Eric Blossom]

On Tue, May 03, 2005 at 04:23:29AM -0400, Rahul Dhar wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> In gr_sync_* blocks, what is "synchronous" about them?  Is it just that
> all the input is handled as soon as it is received by the block, so
> there is no deferred processing of it?

It means that the input and output rates have a fixed relationship
between them.  E.g., 1:1, 1:N, N:1

On the other hand, if you subclass gr_block, you can construct blocks
that have an arbitrary relationship between the rate of consumption on
each input and the rate of production on the outputs.  Using gr_block
entails a bit of extra work for the programmer, hence gr_sync_block,
gr_sync_decimator, and gr_sync_interpolator are used when you've got a
fixed rate between input and output.

Eric