# Best Affordable Board for Software Defined Radio (SDR)?

**URL:** <https://discuss.pynq.io/t/best-affordable-board-for-software-defined-radio-sdr/2242>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [January 13, 2021, 9:21pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/best-affordable-board-for-software-defined-radio-sdr/2242 "2021-01-13T21:21:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RDPowers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e56c9b/32.png) [@RDPowers](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/RDPowers)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2021, 9:21pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/best-affordable-board-for-software-defined-radio-sdr/2242/1 "2021-01-13T21:21:33Z")

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Hi,

I am interested in using Pynq to learn/teach about developing FPGA DSP content (filters, modems, etc) for use with a SDR (software defined radio).

I have had a look at the supported boards and see ZCU-111 has excellent support for this but is very expensive ($8999 list, then you need to buy RF front end parts).

So, do any of the other boards have a high speed ADC/DAC connected to the PL?

And/or could one interface the PL on one of these boards to the commonly available USB-attached experimenter’s SDRs such as HackRF1, RTL-SDR, etc?

Or interface to Ethernet attached radios such as USRP (which are also on the expensive side unfortunately)?

Or is the most feasible method to attach the SDR to PS’s USB/Ethernet then use DMA and ring buffers to move data into and out of the PL? Seems this would add a lot of latency.

Thanks,  
RDP

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**Author:** ![RDPowers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e56c9b/32.png) [@RDPowers](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/RDPowers)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/best-affordable-board-for-software-defined-radio-sdr/2242/2 "2021-01-13T21:24:26Z")

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Another thought: The Pluto SDR ( [ADALM-PLUTO Evaluation Board | Analog Devices](https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/evaluation-hardware-and-software/evaluation-boards-kits/adalm-pluto.html#) ) has a Zynq device inside of it and all its software is open source. Has there been any thought to try to add Pynq support for that as a device?

Regards,  
RDP

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**Author:** ![marioruiz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/marioruiz/32/2177_2.png) [@marioruiz](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/marioruiz)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 7:57pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/best-affordable-board-for-software-defined-radio-sdr/2242/3 "2021-01-17T19:57:13Z")

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@RDPowers, stay tune there will be news shortly about an RFSoC board for teaching at an affordable price

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**Author:** ![marioruiz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/marioruiz/32/2177_2.png) [@marioruiz](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/marioruiz)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2021, 10:19am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/best-affordable-board-for-software-defined-radio-sdr/2242/4 "2021-02-02T10:19:45Z")

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February 28th **A Low-Cost Teaching and Research Platform Based on Xilinx RFSoC Technology and the PYNQ Framework** at FPGA’21

[https://isfpga.org/workshops-tutorials/](https://isfpga.org/workshops-tutorials/)