BladeRF X115 comes with a larger 115KLE Cyclone IV, FPGA, which provides additional space for hardware accelerators and signal processing chains involving FFTs,
Turbo decoders, transmit modulators/filters, and receive acquisition correlators for burst modems.
When unpacked from the bladeRF box, you can tune from 300MHz to 3.8GHz without the need for additional plates. Current open source drivers provide support for GNURadio among other things, allowing bladeRF to be placed for immediate use. This gives bladeRF the flexibility to act as its own RF modem, GSM and LTE cell, GPS receiver, ATSC transmitter or combination of Bluetooth/WiFi client's without the need for any expansion cards.
Highlights:
Full-duplex sampling 40MSPS 12bit quadrature
Only SDRs in their class to support high precision FPGA timed RX and TX scheduling
40ppb (0.040ppm) of production calibrated VCTCXO
Removable-cap RF shields for increased sensitivity and system isolation, system sensitivity as low as -102dBm
Upgraded hitchhiker architecture significantly improves SNR system up to 35 dB
Larger and expanding GPIO ports ( GPIO Expansion Board )
SPI Flash allows headless operation ( bladeRF SDR-UAV )
+ 6dBm TX force limitation
Support:
OpenBTS support
Windows installer with MATLAB and Simulink support
Technical Specification:
Fully Powered USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Software Defined Radio
Portable, Handmade Form Factor: 5", from 3.5"
Extensible gold-plated RF SMA connectors
300MHz - 3.8GHz RF frequency range
Independent RX/TX 12-bit 40MSPS quadrature sampling
Capable of reaching full-duplex 28MHz channels
16-bit DAC factory calibrated 38.4MHz +/- 1 ppm VCTCXO
On-board 200MHz ARM9 with 512KB embedded SRAM (JTAG port available)
On-board 115KLE Altera Cyclone 4 E FPGA (JTAG port available)
2x2 MIMO configurable with SMB cable, expandable up to 4x4
Modular design expansion card for adding GPIO, Ethernet, and 1PPS synchronization signal and expanding frequency range, and power limits
DC power connector for headless running
Highly efficient, low noise performance architecture
Stable software support for Linux, Windows, Mac and GNURadio
Technical equipment capable of operating as a spectral analyser, vector signal analyser and vector signal generator
USB 3.0 SuperSpeed
High speed, low latency and increased power supply via a single cable: USB 3.0 SuperSpeed is the ideal interface for wide radio front-end bandwidth on modern computers. Cypress FX3 microradier is the ideal solution with a powerful ARM9 processor and sufficient bandwidth to saturate a full duplex 5Gbps USB 3.0 link.
Fully programmable FPGA
Altera Cyclone IV FPGA provides an interface between FX3 and RF transmitter-receiver. This FPGA has a single-cycle approach of embedded memory, hard 18x18 multipliers for specialized DSP and many generally logical elements ready to be programmed.
Broadband RF transmitter-receiver
From bits to RF, limemicro LMS6002D is a fully integrated RF transmitter. Made to power microbug stations, this transceiver is able to handle anything from simple FM audio to the latest 4G LTE standard to whatever future it can hold.
Professional quality
The bladeRF design has been tested and verified to meet our very high standards. On top of RF performance, bladeRF can occupy 28MHz bandwidth over its operating bandwidth without any significant spurs.
bladeRF is a software defined radio (SDR) platform that will allow a community of hobbyists and experts to explore and experiment with multidisciplinary aspects of RF communication. By provide source code, thorough documentation, easy to grab tutorials, and a place for open discussion of modern radio systems, myths will be stripped of obscuring everything from RF, analog and digital hardware design to firmware running on ARM MCU and FPGA for Linux Kernel Device Drivers. Software Defined Radio platform should not end on hardware, which is why there is such a strong emphasis on documentation and tutorials. Starting with basic radio architecture and vaulting techniques, high USB driver design, Linux kernel, basic telecommunications coding schemes, and MIMO, the platform aims to be the perfect tool for teaching modern radio design software.
POWERFUL AND PORTABLE
BladeRF is fully powered through a bus device that does not need to be plugged into a socket for normal operation. For users who want to do host processing USB 3.0 SuperSpeed is the ideal high throughput, low latency interface that brings the PC closer to the antenna than ever before. For those looking for a standalone solution, bladeRF accepts 5V DC input and works autonomously using FPGA for signal processing.
PROFESSIONAL QUALITY, AMATEUR PRIZE
Professionally designed and verified, bladeRF prototypes have been inspected through X-Ray laid layouts (pictured left), and enforce rigorous physical and electrical stress tests to ensure high quality mass production builds. Finally, this makes bladeRF a high quality, defined low-cost Software Radio capable of capturing 40 MHz 12-bit full duplex quadrature samples in real time.
AN OPEN EDUCATION
bladeRF is a Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform designed to enable a community of hobbyists, and professionals to explore and experiment with the multidisciplinary facets of RF communication. By providing source code, thorough documentation, easy to grasp tutorials, and a place for open discussion modern radio systems will be demystified by covering everything from the RF, analog, and digital hardware design to the firmware running on the ARM MCU and FPGA's Linux kernel device drivers.
A Software Defined Radio platform should not end at the hardware, which is why there is such a strong emphasis on documentation and tutorials. Starting with basic radio architecture and spanning into modulation techniques, high throughput USB Linux kernel driver design, basic telecommunication coding schemes, and MIMO, the platform aims to be the perfect tool for learning modern radio design software.
POWERFUL AND PORTABLE
The bladeRF is a fully bus powered device that does not need to be plugged into an outlet for normal operation. For users who wish to do host processing, USB 3.0 SuperSpeed is the ideal high throughput, low latency interface that brings the PC closer to the antenna than ever before. For those looking for a standalone solution, the bladeRF accepts a 5V DC input and operates autonomously using the FPGA for signal processing.
