Lime Microsystems Announces Crowd-funding Initiative to take LimeSDR Platform into Mass Production

Lime Microsystems Announces Crowd-funding Initiative to take LimeSDR Platform into Mass Production

LONDON, April 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --



Lime Microsystems today announced the launch of a crowd-funding campaign to bring
their LimeSDR software defined radio platform into full-scale production. The campaign,
hosted on the Crowd Supply [https://www.crowdsupply.com/lime-micro/limesdr ] platform,
aims to raise $500,000 to fund the final stages of development and mass production of the
LimeSDR [http://limesdr.org ] platform.



The LimeSDR platform is a low cost application-enabled software defined radio (SDR)
platform that can be programmed to support virtually any type of wireless standard. From
Wi-Fi, ZigBee and Bluetooth through to cellular standards such as UMTS, LTE and GSM and to
the emerging IoT communication protocols such as LoRa, the platform offers endless
wireless connectivity opportunities. For network operators, for example, they can now
create and deploy wireless network infrastructure almost anywhere at a fraction of today's
costs. Likewise, educational establishments, research organisations and the maker
community can learn and test new communications techniques, unleash new applications and
open up new markets using the powerful LimeSDR platform. Potential applications identified
already also include RADAR, radio astronomy and IoT gateways.



Measuring just 100 x 60 mm, the LimeSDR board uses the Lime Microsystems LMS7002M
[http://limesdr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/LMS7002M-Data-Sheet-v2.8.0.pdf ] field
programmable radio frequency (FPRF) transceiver to provide continuous coverage of the
frequency range 100 kHz to 3.8 GHz with a 120 MHz RF bandwidth. The transceiver contains
two transmit and two receive chains for provisioning a 2x2 multiple in multiple out (MIMO)
capability. Complementing the wireless transceiver is an Intel/Altera Cyclone IV field
programmable gate array (FPGA) that allows high bandwidth DSP tasks to be carried out in
hardware. Interfacing to the host application is via USB 3.0 using a Cypress USB 3.0
microcontroller. Transmit output, up to 6.5 dBm continuous wave, is through four U.FL
connectors, providing two outputs per transceiver chain. Six U.FL connectors, three per
receiver chain, are used for receiver antennas.



Ebrahim Bushehri, CEO of Lime Microsystems comments, "With LimeSDR our aim is to bring
the same level of programmability we have in the digital domain into RF and as a result,
we believe the next generation of wireless networks could bring real innovation into this
field."



Ensuring that LimeSDR backers can start development as quickly as possible, Lime
Microsystems have built a wide range of open source support tools and resources such as
providing a host drive architecture that supports SoapySDR and UHDTM APIs from the outset.
SoapySDR is a vendor and platform neutral SDR support library used to provide a C++ API
with C wrapper and Python bindings. Radio application development is made possible by
support from the Pothos dataflow programming software suite and the GNU Radio open source
signal processing toolkit.



Ubuntu's authors, Canonical Limited, support the development of LimeSDR. Maarten
Ectors, VP of IoT at Ubuntu said, "Developers will now be able to take any wireless
standard and package it as an app and upload it to the app store so anyone will be able to
use it. Getting behind the LimeSDR campaign could mean that you develop the equivalent of
Angry Birds for wireless communications."



A limited number of early bird LimeSDR platforms are available for $199. Selected
backer levels will also include cases, antennas and cables for easy and quick set-up.



The LimeSDR hardware design, FPGA RTL and USB controller firmware, together with the
associated host driver, are all open source and have been published via myriadrf.org.



Further information: http://www.limemicro.com.



The LimeSDR Crowd Supply campaign can be visited at
http://www.crowdsupply.com/lime-micro/limesdr



The Pitch video can be seen on YouTube at https://youtu.be/7_JLKOG_Zto




 
PR contact: 
Jessica Gillingham, Publitek 
Tel: +44-(0)1225-470-000 
E-mail: Jessica.gillingham@publitek.com 
Web: http://www.publitek.com 


 



Lime Microsystems


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