How_to_acquire_CASPER_hardware - david-macmahon/wiki_convert_test GitHub Wiki

CASPER's mission is to build free, open source, reusable hardware designs and software libraries for building a multitude of radio astronomy instruments.

Open Source Hardware

Our wiki has all the files that you need to build your own iBOB and iADC boards. You are free to take them to your manufacturer of choice and have them build your own set of boards.

The BEE2 and ROACH designs are also open source, and are also available on the CASPER wiki. Simiarly, you can use the available documentation to have your own manufacturer produce boards for you.

Open Source Library

CASPER's signal processing library is open source. It is available for free download, but it requires a non-free MATLAB/Simulink environment. For an overview of the toolflow, see the MSSGE Toolflow page.

CASPER Manufacturing

CASPER has several manufacturing partners that the group uses to have its own boards built. If you are interested in purchasing assembled and tested boards, enclosures, cable assemblies, memory, etc, most CASPER hardware can be purchased from DIgi-com Electronics, http://digicom.org. All of CASPER's collaborators acquire boards in this manner when they need low volumes.

CASPER Hardware Roadmap

The iBOB v1.3, iADC v1.1 and BEE2 are presently in production and are well-tested. The ROACH board is intended as a successor to both the BEE2 and the iBOB for radio astronomy applications. CASPER does not intend to make use of the BEE3 platform.

First a prototype ROACH board (miniROACH) was produced. Then ROACH prototypes were produced around March 2008. As of March 2010 production versions of ROACH boards are being produced and many boards have already been shipped to end users. More details of the ROACH production runs may be found at ROACH1ProductionRuns

ROACH2 design is underway as a successor to the ROACH. It will enable the use of Xilinx Virtex 6 SX475 or LX550T and, with some loss of functionality, LX240T, LX365T and SX315T FPGAs. Prototype boards are planned for the fourth quarter of 2010.