What kind of computer do I need to run FlexRadio PowerSDR?
FlexRadio PowerSDR will run on a variety of PCs. The transceiver DAC/ADCs can operate at 48, 96 or 192 KHz which is known as the sampling rate. This is hardware dependent, so a particular hardware platform may not support all sampling rates. The higher the sampling rate, the larger the spectrum bandwidth you can sample, and thus view. Also higher sampling rates also reduce the processing latency which is the slight delay between receiving the RF signal and having it converted to AF, which is what you hear from the headphones or speakers. The higher the sampling rate the greater the computing resources needed to run at that speed. There is one other parameter in addition to sampling rate which can effect a PC’s performance and that is the hardware/audio buffers. Smaller audio buffers produce less latency but require more computing resources. A very fast computer (multiple core CPUs), like anyone purchased today can run at the highest sampling rates with the lowest buffer settings. Older
