NOW AVAILABLE: SPECTRAN V6 ECO (44MHz RTBW | 9kHz to 8GHz)
As long as it has DDR5 on board its all cool...
DDR5 is light years better but depends on what you want to do.
For most tasks that PC should work fine.
Quote from AdminTC on 19/06/2023, 23:15DDR5 is light years better but depends on what you want to do.
For most task that PC should work fine.
Thank you. That's good to know. Alternatively, I was already looking into buying a mini desktop pc with high(er)-end specs (e.g. 8 cores, DDR5, USB4 ports etc.), if nothing else, to free up my laptop and be able to monitor and collect data for my research project. Additionally, having the option to add multiple monitors is also useful.
Amongst other things I would like to be able to record and replay data, as well as to be able to monitor multiple frequency bands between 1 or 2 ECO devices.
What are the critical / guideline specs of a new mini pc that allows one to run pretty much anything on a Spectran ECO unit, including streaming, recording and replaying real-time data?
Re the delivery of the new ECO units: your website says that it takes 2-3 months to deliver. This means if I pay for one today, I should expect to receive the ECO sometimes towards the end of August or September? Is there any VAT (tax) to pay if ordered from the UK? Many thanks.
Quote from vjuhasz on 19/06/2023, 23:26What are the critical / guideline specs of a new mini pc that allows one to run pretty much anything on a Spectran ECO unit, including streaming, recording and replaying real-time data?
Well, for streaming (over network) the first bottleneck will obviously be the network interface. The usual 1 GBit/s interface will likely be too slow, you want at least a 2.5 GBit/s connection (which needs to be supported by all components, not just the PC itself).
For recording a NVMe SSD with a sustained transfer speed of >500 MByte/s should be sufficient (for recording a single stream). Unfortunately you will rarely find that specified in datasheets which only lists maximum burst speeds. And esp. in Mini-PCs you often don't find any specifics about the included SSD at all. Also keep in mind that SSD transfer speeds can depend on temperature, so the same SSD may perform differently based on system cooling capabilities.
CPU and memory requirements obviously will vary greatly on the specific use case. There is no such thing as "pretty much anything" when it comes to the RTSA, e.g. the IQ Signal Generator block alone can overpower every existing CPU with some settings.
As a very rough guideline I'd suggest a six- or eight-core CPU that supports PCIe Gen 4+ (like Ryzen 5000-7000 series or Intel 12th and 13th generation) with 32 GB of RAM, that should cover most regular applications for a single device. Older CPUs will usually also work just fine, but will make it harder to validate any issues.
What should be avoided are all types of embedded CPUs (basically anything that isn't named "Intel Core i" or "AMD Ryzen"). Also mobile CPUs can be tricky as the vendors name them very similiar to their desktop counterparts, but their specs may differ greatly as they are optimized for low power usage. And esp. with "new" mobile AMD Ryzen 7000+ similar model numbers can feature hardware that is brand-new high-end or several years old low-end.
If you don't plan to run any fancy visualizations the onboard graphics of most Mini-PCs should be fine. But for some advanced visualizations and/or high resolutions a dedicated graphics card can be necessary (which of course won't work with a Mini-PC).
Thank you for the detailed reply. I will see how my laptop performs in the first instance, then when I decide to upgrade to a new PC I will get in touch again for advice to make sure I am buying the right hardware. And by then I should also have a better understanding about what Spectran features I will need.
Quote from vjuhasz on 19/06/2023, 23:26Re the delivery of the new ECO units: your website says that it takes 2-3 months to deliver. This means if I pay for one today, I should expect to receive the ECO sometimes towards the end of August or September? Is there any VAT (tax) to pay if ordered from the UK? Many thanks.
2-3 months estimated delivery times are correct?
Yes
Hello, the Eco unit with 1 RX and 1TX channels has the preamplifier option for both the RX and TX channels (2 pre amps) or just the RX channel (1 pre amp)?
Yes the preamp option will activate the Rx and/or Tx preamp.
Without preamp the Tx will offer around -10dBm with preamp around 10dBm.
