Nyt initiativ skal bane vej for RF-verdenens Arduino

Nyt non-profit initiativ, kaldet Myriad-RF, sigter på at opbygge rammerne for en fleksibel open-source RF platform med færdige boards og komplette, redigerbare designfiler (in english)

Lime Microsystems has launched an open-source RF initiative to widen the community of developers and aid RF innovation.

Launched as a non-profit initiative, Myriad-RF aims to give both hobbyists and experienced design engineers a range of low-cost RF boards and free design files available for general use. Future board designs will come from the wider Myriad-RF community, with the first board (Myriad-RF 1) designed by Taiwanese distributor Azio Electronics.

Myriad-RF boards use field programmable RF (FP-RF) transceivers to operate on all mobile broadband standards - LTE, HSPA+, CDMA, 2G - including all regional variants; and any wireless communications frequency between 0.3 and 3.8GHz. This includes the regulated, licensed bands and unlicensed / whitespace spectra.

Designs hosted on myriadrf.org will initially come from Lime and close partners, but Lime seeks to increase involvement and design contribution from the general RF design community - both hobbyists and professional system designers.

Azio's Myriad-RF 1 board measure approximately 5x5cm, uses a 5V power supply and is software configurable to operate from 300MHz to 3.8GHz and on 2G, 3G and 4G communication networks. Pre-built boards will initially retail for $299 or less.

- Innovation only really happens when a large number of minds tackle a problem, and by going open-source we can slash the hardware costs and open RF innovation up to as many people as possible, says Ebrahim Busherhi, Lime CEO and Myriad-RF creator.

- We're trying to create an Arduino for the RF sector; a board that's low cost, powerful, exceptionally flexible and easy to use. And, most importantly, we're trying to let the community determine what's required, letting them add the functionality they need.

A distribution network is already in place for pre-built boards and components with Azio Electronics and Eastel already on board. Links to all available pre-built boards can be found on the Myriad-RF board pages.

Lime has also beta-launched the Myriad-RF community website and forum, www.myriadrf.org. This resource will also house the board design files and example projects with how-to guides and the ability for users to contribute extra content.