UHD 4.8.0.0

UHD 4.8.0.0

Highlights / Main Changes

• Addition of rfnoc_modtool and further improvements to RFNoC Image Builder
  toolsets. This further improves the ability to design RFNoC blocks and
  create custom FPGA bitfiles.
• Replaced RFNoC FFT block with a new version
• Improved Windows installation capabilities including distribution
  of binary Python bindings for Windows though PyPI

New Features

• Image Builder
  • Add GRC support. This allows designing RFNoC bitfiles from GNU Radio
    Companion (GRC).
  • Improve clock connection checks and checks for duplicate connections.
  • Improve IO port compat check (e.g., check if wire widths match).
  • Allow default clocks in domain checks.
  • Simplify image core YAMLs by better usage of RADIO_NIPC parameter.
  • Improve parameter resolution.
  • Improve error messages for missing YAML files.
  • Add --SYNTH and --CHECK options.
  • Add support for building an FPGA image using multiple parallel jobs and
    unique seeds with repeat_fpga_build.py and the --fpga-jobs option.
  • Add 'q' (or 'quote') filter to YAML files to allow quoting strings.
• rfnoc-gain (OOT RFNoC example)
  • Overhaul directory structure, and rename to rfnoc-gain from
    rfnoc-example.
  • Simplify dynamic loading of OOT DLLs by using the new modules.d feature.
  • Add CE clock support to gain block. This enables the example on X4x0.
  • Add a GNU Radio subdirectory with examples of how to run the gain block
    in GNU Radio.
• Add rfnoc_modtool. This is a command line utility to help design OOT RFNoC
  blocks and replaces the previously available blocktool.
• RFNoC
  • Add tune requests. This allows tuning a complete graph as known from
    multi_usrp instead of single blocks individually.
  • Replace FFT block with a new version supporting larger FFT sizes and
    cyclic prefix insertion and removal.
• multi_usrp
  • Add Python bindings for get_user_settings_iface()
• General UHD
  • Add modules.d support
  • Add uhd::find_uhd_command() API call
  • Remove old-style Boost.Asio usage for compatibility with future versions
    of Boost.
• Embedded Filesystem
  • Support for USB Audio devices on E31X, E320, N3XX and X4XX
• Windows binary installer
  • Simplified the Windows installer experience by reducing the number of
    individual downloads from 4 (for USB devices) to 2, by including
    libusb.dll and USB driver installer files into NSIS-built installer
    binaries.
  • Add new cmake feature option called ENABLE_EXTEND_WIN_PACKAGING,
    which defaults to off. Enabling this feature will cause a number
    of convenience components to be included into the Windows deployment
    package (aka. installer).
    Enabling this feature has no effect on other platforms.
  • Added binary Python bindings for Windows installable through PyPI
    (pip install uhd)
• Documentation
  • Add documentation about relationship of MTU, samples per packet and
    atomic item size

Dependencies changes

• Increase minimum required versions
  • CMake to 3.12
  • Boost to 1.66

Bug Fixes

• General UHD
  • Fix compatibility with DPDK >= 22.11
  • Fix compiler warnings for better compatibility with C++17 and 20.
  • Add logic for loading uhd.dll from the correct path for Windows with
    Python3.8+.
  • Add logic to warn about potential incompatibilities when importing
    Python bindings.
  • Remove duplicate results from find
  • Release GIL when calling find from Python which improves response time
    for large setups.
• Python support
  • On Windows now also enable building python support if minimum supported
    python version is detected.
  • Changed version number format for build Windows binaries to common
    major.api.abi.patch format.
• MPM
  • Allow images without RF frontend (will only be initialized if FPGA
    reports availability)
  • Fix usrp_update_fs to work for all embedded devices (and not just X4xx)
• E320: Ensure consistent sequencing when powering on/off GPSDO
• N310/N300: Fix LO query API for lowband LO
• RFNoC
  • RFNoC DDC/DUC block (used in all Gen-3 USRPs and X410): Fix fractional
    frequency offset.
  • Fix AIS/spp calculation (e.g., for connecting FFT blocks).
  • Fix USE_IMPL rendering for the addsub block.
• Image Builder
  • Fix colors
  • Fix error message for missing control SEP
  • Improve error reporting for invalid connections
  • Accept ~ and ~user on command line
  • Fix deprecated usage of yaml.load()
  • Ensure correct device tree files generation when choosing a custom build
    directory
• rfnoc_modtool
  • Fix generation of noc_shells

Validated OS Environments

(Versions for build and runtime dependencies can be determined from the
docker container definitions in the UHD repository at .ci/docker/...)

• Linux:
  • Ubuntu: bionic (18.04), focal (20.04), jammy (22.04), noble (24.04)
  • Fedora: 39, 40, 41
• Windows: 10 21H2, 11 21H2
• MacOS: Monterey (12.6)