Computer

System Requirements

This software is designed for Windows on the x86 hardware only, Windows on the Raspberry Pi is not supported. Although the software runs on older Core 2 Duo systems with 32-bit Windows 7, the recommended absolute minimum system configuration is:

 

  • Windows 7 64-bit,
  • Intel I3,
  • 4GB RAM.


This software works well with Windows 11.

 

Keep your computer cool! A user had unexpected reboots of his Intel® Core™ i7-4770K (2013) computer, turns out the CPU thermal paste had dried up, the temperature was rising and the CPU went on strike. Electronics (and programmers) work better when they are cool.

List of Services

Parallels on Mac

⚠️ Parallels Desktop for Mac, by Parallels, is not officially supported. If the software works then you're in luck, if it doesn't then the recommendation is to run Windows direct.

Mini Atom 2GB+32GB

Surpisingly the software runs with acceptable (= usable) performance on the now quite common Quad-core Atom (e.g. Z3735F), 2GB RAM, 32GB disk systems with 32-bit Windows 10. For development the Azulle Quantum Byte Fan-less Windows® Mini Desktop PC (no longer available) is used.

Performance is not staggering, but supports bandwidths of up to 1 MHz (sometimes more), the graphics quality and responsiveness is good but not great.

Don't expect to run the console and other demanding programs at the same time.

4k Monitor

The minimum recommended monitor size is HD (1920 x 1080), if finances allow buy:
  • A 4k monitor,
  • A graphics card will run a 4k monitor at least a 30Hz, better still 60Hz refersh rate.
The software uses Direct2D / DirectX graphics and scales well on 4k monitors. It has also been tested with an 8k monitor.

CPU Load

An important feature is the low CPU requirement, achieved by:

 

  • Using the Intel IPP library [ Wikipedia ],
  • Using hardware accelerated graphics (in this case DirectX) rather than the traditional GDI/GDI+,
  • Minimise memory allocation, recycle rather than allocate then free,
  • Attention to the code - every cycle counts.

 

The result of saving cycles during the processing is that it's possible to implement a more fluid and mature user interface, especially the spectrum and waterfall with opaque overlays.



Reducing

If the CPU usage is higher than desired:

  • Enable FFT on the graphics card if you have one (see below),
  • Reduce the resolution: Ribbon bar, View, Waterfall, Resolution,
  • Disable shading: Ribbon bar, View, Spectrum, Shaded,
  • Start the radio with a lower bandwidth,
  • Reduce the number of receivers,
  • Close unnecessary windows:
  • Audio spectrum,
  • IF Display.

FFT Processing on Graphics Cards

Modern graphics cards are parallel processors which are ideal for some CPU-intensive tasks such as FFT (Fast Fourier transform) which is used to generate the frequency domain data shown in the waterfall and spectrum.


When you use a SDR with a high bandwidth (Airspy R2, ELAD S2/S3, SDRplay, ...) of 5 MHz or more the FFT processing load may be noticeable, this can be run on your graphics card using NVIDIA CUDA or OpenCL.

Memory

You've bought RAM for your computer - this software uses it to cache the data:
  • Data recording - in the data recording options a cache is specified, this can be as much as 30 seconds.
  • FFT (waterfall) data is cacehed - as you resize or move the waterfall windows this data is reused to smoothly update the waterfall, all part of an enhanced user experience.
If you look at the memory used by browsers such a Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge you will see that these too can use considerable memory.

Memory Increasing
Every time a program loads a DLL or enables / opens a new window the process space will grow, but don't worry. Windows is intelligent - it manages RAM demand between programs. Unless there is a memory leak [Wikipedia] in the software there is nothing to worry about. As this software gets more mature any memory leaks are found and corrected.

The one situation where the commit size may continue to grow is when the CPU load is very high and the background memory collection / recycling cannot run.
  • Dynamic memory (strings, variables) is generally recycled within the process, but memory allocated for the executable code isn't recycled, so when you start new options you may see the commit size grow.
  • The Direct2D / DirectX driver will also use memory to enhance performance.
Don't worry about memory - you bought it, let the software use it.

Commit Size vs Working Set
In the Task Manager, Details page select the Commit Size column, this is value which shows the virtual size of a process is [Wikipedia]. Compare this to the Working Set is the physical memory used by the process [Wikipedia].

Note: the commit size will never reduce, it will only grow.

To select columns in the Task Manager:
  1. Select the Details page,
  2. Right-click on any column title: Name, PID, Status...,
  3. From the popup menu select Select Columns...,
  4. In the columns list select the columns to be displayed.
Reducing Memory
You can reduce the memory used to an absolute minimum by disabling the data cache. From the Tools pane in the ribbon pane select Options, from the Program Options select CPU, Memory. In this window uncheck Data Cache, Enable.

32-Bit vs. 64-Bit

The major problem with 32-bit versions of Windows is the reduced memory space for the SDR Console process. The current memory used is shown in the bottom right of the display, with 32-bits the maximum is about 1.7 GB before the program has problems and has to stop.

Even if you only have 4GB of RAM 64-bit Windows should be installed to make most use of your memory.

NVIDIA CUDA

If you have a NVIDIA graphics card then this software will use the graphics card's processor for the CPU-intensive FFT processing (convert the SDR radio data to the waterfall and spectrum display). This
  1. offloads the processing from your CPU (Intel or AMD), and
  2. is advantageous when running radios with a bandwidth of ~ 2 MHz or higher together with enhanced resolution. Radios with higher bandwidths are Airspy, SDRplay, Ettus B200, LimeSDR etc.
It is not essential that you have a NVIDIA graphics card, but if you are going to buy a graphics card then buy NVIDIA with compute capability 3.0 or higher, for a list of NVIDIA GPUs: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus . A good value for money card is the GTX 950, if you want a good budget card then look at the GT 730.

Note:
  • CUDA is enabled in the NVIDIA graphics card, there's nothing for you to configure,
  • The FFT processing uses the CUDA cores by default - if the graphics card has any that is!

OpenCL

This software supports the OpenCL (Open Computing Language) library which uses the graphics card's processor for the CPU-intensive FFT processing (convert the SDR radio data to the waterfall and spectrum display). This
  1. offloads the processing from your CPU (Intel or AMD), and
  2. is advantageous when running radios with a bandwidth of ~ 2 MHz or higher together with enhanced resolution. Radios with higher bandwidths are Airspy, SDRplay, Ettus B200, LimeSDR etc.
Note:
  • If you have a NVIDIA card then the CUDA FFT implementation is more efficient than OpenCL.
  • OpenCL is highly optimised for AMD Radeon cards.

⚠️ OpenCL is installed as part of your graphics driver. Don't worry if it's not there - the option will just be disabled in SDR Console.

⚠️ OpenCL is not currently recommended on NVIDIA due to a serious memory leak in the NVIDIA driver for OpenCL.

Computer Description

Windows has a built-in tool DirectX Diagnsotics which provides a full description of your computer. Start this program from the Console's Ribbon bar, Tools, Settings.

When started a prompt appears asking about signed drivers - select No.
The main window appears, this contains all the information required. Either make a screen capture or press Save All Information to create a text file. Simply attach the screen capture and/or text file.

Screenshot

Logfile

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