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Linux Powers First Handheld Software Radio
An anonymous reader writes "According to this article at LinuxDevices.com, Vanu Technology is demonstrating what it claims represents the world's first handheld 'software radio' using an iPAQ PDA running Linux at a conference in Washington DC today. Vanu apparently has implemented the signal processing functions on the iPAQ's XScale processor, and their software uses POSIX APIs to make it platform independent. Software radios implement multiple radio standards and frequency bands in software, rather than hardware. A standard iPAQ expansion pack houses the radio transceiver."
Linux, radio, and my PDA. That rocks (or it would if I had a PDA). Anyone know about cheap PCI radio tuner cards? I'm itching to listen to the radio on my comp. :)
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
This would add even more value to the already wonderful Z.
But I think transistors have been handling that whole portable radio thing just fine without Linux to help them. Sorry.
If you are using Mozilla, you are better of using a custom CSS stylesheet, with selectors to match the banner size and make the images hidden. This has the advantage of blocking all banners on all sites - plus it can be used to do a lot more too. Much better than a javascript hack.
I have wanted a DAB radio, which are now becoming available in Canada.
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This looks really cool, but it seems that the cost will be prohibitive for people who just want to listen to the radio. As the article mentions, the ability to operate on many different formats is probably more geared towards industry uses. Oh, and of course it will save lives because emergency response teams will be able to communicate better ;)
We developed compressed audio formats to combat the mindless crap that makes it onto the radio.
Now we are using a processor with many million transistors to take the place of a single transistor radio. Anyways, this is a cool accomplishment, with or without a practical application.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
of software radio is the ability to modify the code and tromp all over someone elses legally protected frequency range. Some of the big nonos include sending on ATC (air traffic controll) frequencies and numerous other military and civil service bands.
Someone corect me if I am wrong, but couldn't the transceiver be built with hardware filters on those bands and thus sidestep the issue of broadcast interference? I know this is not as nice as having a fully programmable software radio transmitter, but otherwise I really don't see the FCC granting any kind of production licensing for these.
Anyone else have solutions to this dilemma?
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
Anyone know if this runs on 'the T' ?
Yeah, but does it run Li... ...oh, never mind....
Chaos, panic, disorder...my work here is done.
I second that question, I'd really like a radio receiving card for my computer.
I looked a bit, but could not find any PCI card that could pick up AM radio!! What's with that?
Does anyone have one that can point me in the right direction?
is this gonna be called "linradio"?
That means I can not only LISTEN to the radio, but also start my own illegal/pirate station? (transceiver = transmitter and receiver. I would really expect it to be only a receiver).
Wouter.
You really don't want to try to get AM inside a computer. It's so full of nasty EMI you'll just get a head full of static and pops and buzzes.
Unless the software solution offers significant improvements/advantages (like super fine tuning, rms, ta, like the stuff on the car audio tuners) and catching international radio stations, I just don't really see the point of having linux in something that works great as it is already (i.e., the old fashioned way)...
Music is the language of the heart, the sound of the soul. -Joe Satriani
Still available! I can't believe that people can still be ham radio dorks in 2003...God bless geeks and their intractibility!
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
Bah! Sheilding is very very easy. How many people here have PCI TV-Tuner cards that also recieve FM? A whole $0.05 of tin to sheild the analog parts of the system, and everything is fine.
That's the one redeeming quality of computers over every other electronic device, at least they are adequately sheilded. You will probably get more interference from your TV set than you computer.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
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I don't care if I have to hook it up to some long antenna or something...
radios in software......instead of hardware....*scratches head*
so listening in on cop band and other unautorized channels could be a few lines of code away then...
nah too f***ing good to be true.some biatch with a herfgun come along and take it out anyway*continues daydreaming*
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
just a poor geeks dream...
I'm a little tea pot.
Isn't it just a pcmcia interface? So potentially this item could be reproduced for a laptop computer?
Funny you say that... http://www.linradio.com/
This is a software-defined-radio PCI card.
Holy cheeses, man, who the hell wants to listen to a $5 transistor radio when you can hear the same thing on $1500 worth of uber-geek gear?
Customized iPAQ promising as public safety and homeland defense interoperability solution
Washington, DC - May 12, 2003 - Vanu, Inc. is demonstrating the first hand-held software radio device today at the "Wireless Innovations: New Technologies and Evolving Policies" Showcase in Washington, DC. The event, hosted by the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the FCC and the U.S. Department of State's International Communications and Information Policy group, brings together premier wireless technology demonstrations and facilitates policy discussions about the state of technology and innovation in the wireless telecommunications industry.
Vanu, Inc., selected by show organizers as a "leading edge" participant, is a developer of software radios. Unlike traditional hardware radios, which are limited to one specific type of communication service, software radios allow a single wireless device to provide multiple services. This means one software radio can now support a range of capabilities that previously required multiple hardware radios.
Featured among Vanu, Inc.'s demonstrations is the first hand-held software radio using general purpose processors. "This device is the culmination of nine years of software radio research, coupled with the advancements in processing power promised by Moore's Law," says Dr. Vanu Bose, founder and CEO of Vanu, Inc.
The standard off-the-shelf Hewlett-Packard iPAQ, runs on a Xscale processor from Intel and a Linux operating system. The radio transceiver operates from 100 MHz to 475 MHz and is housed in a standard iPAQ expansion pack. The iPAQ utilizes Vanu Software RadioTM to implement all of the signal processing. The current configuration of the device supports commercial analog FM radio service, including Family Band Radio, as well as the public safety APCO 25 digital standard. Future prototypes under development include operational capabilities of up to 900 MHz and support for cellular and PCS standards such as TDMA and GSM.
Such a device has great appeal in the public safety community, where decentralized purchasing decisions, legacy systems and advancements in technology have left first responders unable to communicate with other agencies at an emergency scene. A handheld software radio with the capability of operating among several standards and frequencies alleviates the communications problems caused by incompatible radio systems.
"Someday, most public safety radios will be software-based," said David Coursey, executive editor of ZDNet AnchorDesk, an online technology newsletter. "Making the best use of spectrum while improving compatibility and multi-agency connectivity are problems that software radios seem best-suited to solve. Vanu, Inc. is way ahead of this curve."
"I want this kind of technology for my own emergency communications work," added Mr. Coursey, who also has nearly 20 years' experience working with emergency services agencies.
In addition to the hand-held software radio, Vanu, Inc. is also demonstrating their software radio GSM basestation and a multi-mode laptop system with the ability to support multiple standards on a single system. The second day of the event features a roundtable on Unlicensed Wireless Technologies. Dr. Bose is participating as a panelist for the Spectrum Policy and Regulatory Issues discussion, along with business leaders, policy makers and experts from industry, government and academia.
About Vanu, Inc.
Vanu, Inc. has revolutionized SDR through the development of Vanu Software Radio. Their approach applies modern software engineering techniques to the high-speed signal processing elements at the core of wireless devices to create portable software radio applications that will greatly increase the pace of innovation in wireless devices. Vanu, Inc. licenses software radio components and applications and provides design-consulting services to wireless OEMs, system integrators and service providers. Vanu, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Vanu Software Radio(TM) is a registered trademark of Vanu, Inc.
All other names and trademarks are registered property of their respective companies
Bush is on fire and its not good for my lungs.
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I just junked 3 cabinets full of 10-year-old SDRs. Each rack had an i960 card that controlled a half dozen "radio" cards that were full of old TI DSP chips.
thanks for a new vocab word too ;)
This post was brought to you by the number 584811 and the characters / and .
Someone else got it right. This is more like being able to configure a particular device to do any wireless standard without requiring custom RF hardware, ASICs, and DSPs to do the signal processing and modulation/demodulation for each technology it handles. All the protocols and such (if we're talking about something like a GSM/TDMA/CDMA phone) would already be handled in software anyway. It's the low layer h/w receiver, transmitter, and signal processing (i.e. radio) stuff that's expensive to design and build and fit into portable devices. It sounds like this is their reference design and probably their intention is to try and license this technology to PDA and mobile phone makers.
YOU FAIL IT!
Now instead of $5 for a transistor radio I can get a really cool one for $500. Technology rocks.
The current configuration of the device is said to support commercial analog FM radio services, including Family Band Radio as well as the public safety APCO 25 digital standard, with future prototypes under development that will include operational capabilities of up to 900 MHz and support for cellular and PCS standards such as TDMA and GSM.
With such a huge frequency range under its belt and the fact that it's all process via software all it needs is some voice recognition software and it could become the ultimate scanner/big brother toy. Simply put, you enter a few key words, and it scans the airways for you looking for them until it finds them and either logs it or tunes you into it. The NSA has had stuff like this for listening in on international call, but I don't know if I like the idea of my neighbour being able to selectively listen in on my calls especially with such power...
me->Hi I'd like to buy blah
staff-> will that be Visa or MasterCard
me-> Visa...
person with smart scanner->Chaching!
runs Vanu Technology
The ADT Cadet is an ISA card with AM/FM reception. Actually, that chip can receive SW also, but that particular card doesn't have the necessary antenna interface. See if they have PCI or PCMCIA (you could try a PCI adapter :-) products. Cadet has Linux drivers.
Rush Limbaugh is clear and full of truth. Better than any AM,FM or any computer Card.
Oh, so this is the hardware for listening to Free Radio Linux? Good, now I can listen to my kernel anywhere.
Yeah - it's called the FCC and includes the process of type acceptance for a manufacturer to sell or even advertise radio equipment.
Anyone can purchase a transmitter or two-way radio and begin transmitting without a license on top of legit communications.
This is an old problem with an old solution. Do a 'net search for "Riley's Hammer" ...
For an example of this in action see fcc.gov
He's full of something ...
I wish I could turn my normal radio into a PDA running Linux...
This is ok I guess. But I still prefer to use a radio to do a radios job and a PDA to use as a PDA.
tkcRadio doesn't count then? Okay, so it's internet radio not normal AM/FM, but still, tkcRadio has been out for a while. [and yes, it's for the Zaurus, of course!]
Who said Freedom was Fair?
Ha ha ha. Yeah. Rush Rulez dude. Heh heh heh.
Yeah, yeah, I want to see his butt. That would be cool.
Hey! I resemble that remark. Ham radio is still alive and kicking. Hams are just as much geeks as any other computer geek. Some of us (like me) enjoy computers and amateur radio. I have spent many thousands of dollars in ham gear and many thousands of dollars in computer gear. The only difference is not only will my ham radio gear work without the internet, but it will hold it's value far longer than any of my computer equipment. DSP radios are not new, our local group here is working on a DSP based data radio. Other groups like TAPR sell a DSP radio kit.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
When are the dumbass editors going to realize that these little hand-held devices are powered by BATTERIES? They RUN Linux; they're powered by BATTERIES. Cretins.
Ummm... MS Project for Mac 4.0?
What's that got to do with the price of cheese?
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
You guys are all missing the point. If you have a software radio you have something that is inherently able to adapt to the spectral environment that it currently "sees". Develop logic that deals with interference, and you've eliminated the concept of management bands and spectrum management agencies. You've essentially automated the process that these agencies seek to fufill, and you've eliminated the politics, lobbying mechanisms and the grip that the old world broadcast industry has on the raw resource that should be essentially free for everyone to use.
Some people may argue that you've taken revenue (licensing) away from central government. That is true. But my belief is that Central Government should be focussing on developing innovative smart technology rather than maintaining archaic processes. Revenue through process rather than red-tape.
Are radiowaves the electromagnetic equivalent of GNU bandwidth?
Check here and here for clue.
somewhere in texas, a village is missing it's idiot
Might using software radios introduce a new risk for emergency workers? Might the software include a security hole vandals or terrorists could use to disrupt all the emergency services radios at once?
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
This would be a much more useful announcment if they had written the software for Palm's Tungsten T and the on-board C55x DSP half of its OMAP 1510 processor.
This way:
a) It wouldn't hog 100% of your CPU... you'd actually be able to, you know, DO STUFF while listening to the radio
b) You wouldn't hose your whole battery in virtually no time. The C55x has a WAY better power/mips ratio than XScale, not to mention you're going to use way less mips in the first place by virtue of it being a DSP that's actually designed to do Digital Signal Processing.
Mechanik
>> who the fuck cares.. a $10 piece of shit radio from radio shack does the same thing. and it never needs firmware updates.
Why was this modded as a troll? He's entirely correct! Was it just the silly-assed sig you didn't like?
Instead of forking out $50+ for a radio card, I can spend half that for a nice little FM radio and not waste system resources. The only time I can see a radio card as practical in a computer is for something like a software controlled shortwave receiver, where precision tuning controls and filtering often come into play.
Installing a card in your system to pick up basic AM/FM is like towing a 30 foot travel trailer behind your RV.
Before some LLC patent leach does!
Besides which, GSM mobile phones typically use they're processing power to allow them to do fast frequency hopping, etc.
Yeah, funny you should mention that. Maybe these guys should get involved. Or maybe these instead. Software-defined radios have been built and marketed for hams for quite a while now.
I haven't seen one available for VHF/UHF until now. I'm sure someone will correct me though.
llamafresh
I couldn't find a long little dogie, so I got two short ones and spliced 'em...
The interesting part of this is that it was built into a hand-held computer for the first time, and the practical implementation means that any new radio service is a software upgrade. Think back to the Telco's when call display came out. Instead of upgrading the phones, they had to upgrade the entire network just for a service. This is an infrastructure for radio like the Internet, where services are layered over the basic medium.
My $0.05 (AUD - we don't have pennies any more)
no, installing this card in a PC is like adding a trailer hitch to an RV. not only can it do all the stuff an RV can do, it can now tow a car with it, tow additional luggage on the trailer, carry more passengers (with the right trailer), maybe anchor the RV in a storm, all kinds of things. the card is a general purpose card. you do with it what you want. this just lets a general purpose PC talk to the airwaves in a general purpose way.
While the scneario of the bad guy building a truck mounted, 100 channel, multi protocol, rf sniffing, voice decoding, trasncribing, and keyword searching technology bonanza for $14000 is certainly possible, it's unlikely as hell.
First, find me voice recognition for linux that doesn't suck. No, IBM via voice for linux doesn't actually work and was pulled from the web. And you'd need at least 30 pc's doing voice decoding for you application if you could find such software. Load Dragon natuarally speaking onto 100 cheap winboxen, Add $25,000
I could go on...
But wait, you're talking about the future when these things will be easier to build? Well, in the future all the easy to crack 900Mhz phones would be replaced by software defined radios that do dynamic frequency hopping and encryption. Technology matches technology.
I wouldn't worry about joe cracker.
What I want a wireless set to do, is to monitor several stations at once besides the one I am listening to; and then, if an advert comes on, or a song I've already heard, it will retune itself to another station carrying something more interesting.
That way, I would get the benefit of the BBC (no adverts!) as well as some of the local stations (tho' GWR / 96 Bent / Sheep FM still suck).
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Put together 4 (a Beowolf cluster!), and you could get surround-sound.
OK...so you're going to listen to ten radio stations at once. Now this makes real sense!
This way to the egress which will have just what you're looking for, all for only an extra fiver, mate.
It's interesting to me that this would come up this week. The Dayton Hamvention which is this weekend where I'll be spending a large amount of time. According to the promoters, it's the largest show of it's kind in the world.
Is it just me or does this start to look like the software defined modem (aka winmodem) craze? What's to stop hardware manufacturers from releasing 802.11b gear based around a software radio?
Sure it'd be able to adapt to newer standards but I really don't want my cpu time wasted with host based encoding/decoding, especially if it turns out I need a proprietary driver to do so.
- MbM
And truth is not one of the things he's filled with. ;)
;)
I'm thinking along the lines of hot air, bullshit, or something similar.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
computer controllable rigs as well.
There is even a programming library and some applications available to control various radios.
"Sometimes a man's gotta do what a woman wouldn't consider." - Red Green
Ahh yes, you make a good point... they get FM on those tuner cards. FM = Frequency Modulation... the only way to get clicks and pops to be audible is for those to occur at a frequency range that varies slightly but is centered around the currently-tuned frequency. AM on the other hand, is just all about amplitude, so any time any timed computer parts hit a frequency (or one of many harmonics) similar to the one you are tuned to, you get massive noise. Just get a little poratble AM radio and move it around (and spin it around, etc) all around your computer. When you get a good "noise" that sounds artificial, start typing or something. Bet you hear it. The old (heavily shielded, btw, much more than today's pc's) Apple //e was GREAT for making controllable noise since so much of it ran at slower speeds.
How about a beowulf cluster of those!
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