ZRNA – Software-defined analog circuits
1–10 of 26 posts
Re: ZRNA – Software-defined analog circuits
#2Super cool tech!
Re: ZRNA – Software-defined analog circuits
#3> We achieve this with the union of a field-programmable analog array (FPAA), an ARM processor and state-of-the-art firmware. An FPAA is similar in concept to a field-programmable gate array, but instead of logic elements, it is composed of analog elements: opamps, comparators, capacitors and switches. These fundamental elements are used to build higher level modules like filters, oscillators and gain stages.
Is it going to inspire a wave of FPAA hobbyist devboardvs and activities (just like microcontroller and later FPGA)? If so, we are surely living in a great time of computing.
Re: ZRNA – Software-defined analog circuits
#4> We achieve this with the union of a field-programmable analog array (FPAA), an ARM processor and state-of-the-art firmware. An FPAA is similar in concept to a field-programmable gate array, but instead of logic elements, it is composed of analog elements: opamps, comparators, capacitors and switches. These fundamental elements are used to build higher level modules like filters, oscillators and gain stages. Is it g…
The specs on the op amps aren't particularly impressive. The unity gain is 18Mhz which wouldn't be able to even keep up with a modern AVR clock(16-20Mhz). You can find discrete parts with similar specs for sub-$1.
It's a neat idea and all but when it comes to the analog design space there is a lot more variables to consider and constraints that drive them.
Your average FPGA on the other hand is able to synthesize multiple 8-bit micros and benefits from wide parallelization, I don't see similar benefits with this approach.
Re: ZRNA – Software-defined analog circuits
#5> We achieve this with the union of a field-programmable analog array (FPAA), an ARM processor and state-of-the-art firmware. An FPAA is similar in concept to a field-programmable gate array, but instead of logic elements, it is composed of analog elements: opamps, comparators, capacitors and switches. These fundamental elements are used to build higher level modules like filters, oscillators and gain stages. Is it g…
The specs on the op amps aren't particularly impressive. The unity gain is 18Mhz which wouldn't be able to even keep up with a modern AVR clock(16-20Mhz). You can find discrete parts with similar specs for sub-$1. It's a neat idea and all but when it comes to the analog design space there is a lot more variables to consider and constraints that drive them. Your average FPGA on the other hand is able to synthesize mul…
If you know nothing about circuits, this looks cool. I guess there's always the hobby Blinkenlight crowd.
Re: ZRNA – Software-defined analog circuits
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
The specs on the op amps aren't particularly impressive. The unity gain is 18Mhz which wouldn't be able to even keep up with a modern AVR clock(16-20Mhz). You can find discrete parts with similar specs for sub-$1. It's a neat idea and all but when it comes to the analog design space there is a lot more variables to consider and constraints that drive them. Your average FPGA on the other hand is able to synthesize mul…
If you know nothing about circuits, this looks cool. I guess there's always the hobby Blinkenlight crowd.
When you look at an art form like "blinkenlights" and see exclusively meaningless junks and technobabble, don't see it as a failure. See it as an opportunity.
Re: ZRNA – Software-defined analog circuits
#7I'm divided on this. It's hard for me to figure out what this hardware is actually good for, and particularly in which use cases it beats FPGAs. As far as I can see, FPGAs or DSP-cores in MCUs/processors seem to be the real competitor, and the question will be at what sampling rate a DSP solution will outperform whatever this ZRNA does.
And on top of that, the API looks quite understandable, so it may be easier to use the ZRNA for a certain signal processing task than create a custom DSP Core in Verilog or dig through MCU documentation. Though you could probably make an API for generating verilog code for the Icestorm toolchain, which would not require deep knowledge of digital design.
Other questions are bandwidth and sampling constraints. It seems to have at least one ADC...
Re: ZRNA – Software-defined analog circuits
#8> We achieve this with the union of a field-programmable analog array (FPAA), an ARM processor and state-of-the-art firmware. An FPAA is similar in concept to a field-programmable gate array, but instead of logic elements, it is composed of analog elements: opamps, comparators, capacitors and switches. These fundamental elements are used to build higher level modules like filters, oscillators and gain stages. Is it g…
FPGAs are still pretty hard to get into, for the average hobbyist. Yes, you can "get started" quite easily nowadays, but it's not that easy to go beyond what a decent MCU can do.
That may be the main selling point of ZRNA. It's easier to use their FPAA API than to cobble together FPGA/DSP stuff. May also be easier to change on the fly, for example to automate certain experiments.
Re: ZRNA – Software-defined analog circuits
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
The specs on the op amps aren't particularly impressive. The unity gain is 18Mhz which wouldn't be able to even keep up with a modern AVR clock(16-20Mhz). You can find discrete parts with similar specs for sub-$1. It's a neat idea and all but when it comes to the analog design space there is a lot more variables to consider and constraints that drive them. Your average FPGA on the other hand is able to synthesize mul…
If you know nothing about circuits, this looks cool. I guess there's always the hobby Blinkenlight crowd.
I know slightly more than nothing about analog/digital signal processing, so I get your point about the ZRNA probably not being the savior of the analog signal world...
That being said, you underestimate the "Blinkenlight crowd". There are not only hobbyists, but also researchers, who do not have years of EE education and experience, but want/need to cobble together hardware and software to do their research. Preferably without going back to school for a couple of years.
I can totally see where the ZRNA might save you some time. It's often not at all that easy to vary signal processing parameters across or within experiments.
Re: ZRNA – Software-defined analog circuits
#10> We achieve this with the union of a field-programmable analog array (FPAA), an ARM processor and state-of-the-art firmware. An FPAA is similar in concept to a field-programmable gate array, but instead of logic elements, it is composed of analog elements: opamps, comparators, capacitors and switches. These fundamental elements are used to build higher level modules like filters, oscillators and gain stages. Is it g…
The specs on the op amps aren't particularly impressive. The unity gain is 18Mhz which wouldn't be able to even keep up with a modern AVR clock(16-20Mhz). You can find discrete parts with similar specs for sub-$1. It's a neat idea and all but when it comes to the analog design space there is a lot more variables to consider and constraints that drive them. Your average FPGA on the other hand is able to synthesize mul…
Sure, but analog processing happens continuously and at an SNR that is equivalent to a very high bit depth. If you had an analog processing chain with 18MHz of BW (which granted you'd need somewhat more GBP), that would be more akin to a digital system that can produce output samples at 40Msps+. If each output sample needed even just a few dozen processing clocks to compute, you're already looking at a 500MHz+ clock. Although you could build that digital solution, it wouldn't surprise me if the analog solution was significantly lower power.