[DSP-10] Question About The Status of the DSP-10

[Lyle Johnson]

Hello Dave!

> I apologize in advance for what must be a newbie dumb question. I 
> believe I've convinced myself to purchase the DSP-10 kit
> through TAPR and start building the DSP-10. I have an EZKIT-2181 and 
> even have 6.0 of the DSP Visual Tools. Furthermore,
> I have a history with the 21xx family (initially with goal of using it 
> for SDR). Hence, this project looks very well matched to my
> interests. However, I have a few questions I wonder if someone can help 
> me feel at ease with my decision.
> 
> 1. Is the DSP-10 still is active development?
>         Based on the new archives it appears it is.

I'll let Bob answer that, but like you I think the answer is yes.

> 2. I downloaded the DSP source code (uhf3sc25.zip) and it all appears to 
> be assembly based. I'm assuming that this is
>         because:
>         a) The GNU C compiler  is too expensive for most (I know the 
> source can be obtained but AD
>                 appears to have some critical parts in proprietary 
> software) and/or
>         b) SDR needs to be written in assembly due to optimization issues?
> 
>         Can someone confirm this or otherwise educate me?

The code is in assembler for efficiency.

> 3. After browsing the news archive it appears that there has been much 
> activity on getting the tool chain
>         (Win98 based?) to work in XP. Apparently DOS Box is one option, 
> MS Virtual PC or VMware are the only
>         other options to use the tool chain successfully with out 
> shelling out $1200 to AD for the latest version
>         of VisualDSP (not sure if the latest version works in XP anyway).

Turns out that you just have to set up XP to handle the tools and then 
you don;t even need DOSBox, except perhaps for the simulator.  Details 
at <http://www.kk7p.com/dsp.html> and see Getting Analog Devices Tools 
to run under Windows XP, Solution 2.

Lyle KK7P