SDR ultra-deluxo transciever in a chip (plus A/D & D/A)

[Mike O'Dell]

http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1319935&itc=eetimes_node_201&cid=NL_EET_Microcontroller_20131029&elq=d9fcbdf186984a9b91b5fa6956918e77&elqCampaignId=2052

quad-core ARM-64 plus a giant honking gate array,
all connected together inside the box so no futzing
around with USB3.0 or Ethernet to speak between
the "boxes".

TI has one that's similar but different - quad-core ARM-64 with
12 cores of their C66 *floating point* DSP - and there is
a port for connecting two of them together to get twice as much goodness.

we can can quibble about putting more analog stuff
with it for explicit LO and mixing - maybe even a couple
of analog paths just for good measure...

but we are *rapidly* approaching convergence of "The RF Thing".

Run one app and it's a 4-port network analyzer (GPS/rubidium-locked LO, 
of course)
Run a different app, it's a DC-daylight multi-channel intercept receiver.
Run yet another and it's the multi-channel/multi-band contesting 
transceiver of all time.

or maybe run more than one at once?

it won't be tomorrow or even next week, but it isn't hard to
see the outlines in the fog

     -mo