Lime Microsystems is pleased to officially open orders for the LimeSDR Mini 2.0, the next-generation redesign of its popular compact open-source software defined radio platform – designed to offer an improved experience for those working with the hardware’s on-board field-programmable gate array (FPGA).
Launched in 2017, the LimeSDR Mini single-channel full-duplex software-defined radio dongle, powered by Lime Micro’s LMS7002M field-programmable radio-frequency (FPRF) chip, has proven a popular device for powering a range of projects both professional and amateur.
The primary change in the design is a shift to a new field-programmable gate array chip, the Lattice Semiconductor ECP5. The new chip offers a higher specification, increasing the logic resource count from 26k to 44k LUTs, offering more room for users to program their own gateware to accelerate workloads on-device.
While the updated design brings with it a number of advantages and the benefit of better-stocked components to alleviate supply chain issues which we have seen, in common with the wider electronics industry, excessively long lead times for LimeSDR Mini device orders, it does bring an unavoidable increased in price.
“We are delighted to announce that the new LimeSDR Mini v2 is now going into production. Unfortunately, there remain a number of components which are currently in very short supply, hence our purchasing costs are higher if we wish to deliver boards in a reasonable timeframe,” says Lime Microsystems’ chief executive Dr. Ebrahim Bushehri of the impending release and the new price point.
“Our only alternative option would have been to work to timelines far into the future and even then, nothing is fully guaranteed. However, we will continue to review our sourcing options and I hope that we will be in a position to reduce the price at some point in the future.”
Those interested in purchasing a LimeSDR Mini 2.0 can place an order now on the Crowd Supply campaign page, where it is priced at $399 with deliveries scheduled to begin in October of this year.