What will the "IBM PC" of SDR Look Like?

The IBM PC revolutionized the personal computer industry by bringing standards to a low-cost personal computer platform. It became the dominant design drawing from several industry-proven technical solutions and covering many market segments. It held the right tradeoff balance between technical performance and market requirements. Up until the entry of the IBM PC the market was flush with competing standards and methodologies. An "IBM PC" solution will eventually come to the SDR world. Software defined radio will see much greater success if it can generate a dominant design solution rather than a splintered approach.

So what are the key elements that need to be synthesized into a dominant design? In this paper the authors argue that it will bring portability of waveforms, maintainability, and allow specialization of waveforms.

Another key factor will be size. It will be greatly reduced from what we see today. Just as the IBM PC took computing from the mainframe/mincomputer world down to the desktop so the next generation of SDR will go down in size. Here's one example using Gumstix.

Finally, the cost must be low and the tools widely available. Defacto standards available at low cost will drive SDR applications into new areas and create a richer set of tools for more sophisticated applications.



Best regards,

Hall T.