We’re happy to announce the two important and long-awaited developments in the Lime software-defined radio ecosystem. First, we’re introducing LimeNET Micro 2.0 Developer Edition, a new hardware platform based on LimeSDR XTRX. Second, we’ve released Lime Suite NG (next generation), a completely new version of the Lime Suite software stack that is compatible with all Lime hardware and significantly enhances the user experience.

LimeNET Micro Reimagined

There are currently about two more weeks until the end of the LimeNET Micro 2.0 Developer Edition (DE) crowdfunding campaign. We’ve extended the discount campaign pricing for a more weeks while leaving our fall 2024 delivery schedule unchanged.

LimePSB RPCM

The campaign centers on a new planar system board (PSB) that carries both a Raspberry Pi Compute Module (RPCM) and a Mini PCIe card. Known as LimePSB RPCM, this carrier board was designed for the Raspberry Pi CM4 and LimeSDR XTRX, but those could be swapped out for other compute modules and mPCIe cards in the future.

LimeNET Micro 2.0 DE

LimeNET Micro 2.0 DE is a complete kit comprised of a LimePSB RPCM that is pre-populated with a Raspberry Pi CM4 and LimeSDR XTRX, enclosed in a custom acrylic case, and outfitted with RF cabling and cellular antennas.

LimeNET Micro 2.0 DE 5G Deluxe Kit

LimeNET Micro 2.0 DE 5G Deluxe Kit gets you the same hardware as LimeNET Micro 2.0 Developer Edition preinstalled with the Amarisoft 5G stack and core, plus two smartphones and ten SIM cards to round out a turnkey private 5G network solution.

Learn More About LimeNET Micro 2.0 Developer Edition

Lime Suite Reimagined

The Lime Suite code base has grown over the years to incorporate many improvements and to provide support for an increasing number of SDR platforms. The software collection has also grown to include numerous examples, utilities - such as for testing boards and programming firmware/gateware - and plug-ins for things like SoapySDR and GNU Octave.

However, after many years development, it became clear that Lime Suite would benefit from certain architectural changes, such as improved support for boards with more than one transceiver. Furthermore, these improvements would result in breaking API changes. With this in mind, it was decided to implement these via a new project, Lime Suite NG (Next Generation).

Lime Suite NG includes support for LimeSDR Mini 2.0, LimeSDR XTRX, LimeNET Micro 2.0 Developer Edition, and any new Lime hardware in the foreseeable future. Moving forward, Lime Suite NG will be the recommended driver stack for all active Lime hardware.

This unified software stack is especially welcome for LimeSDR XTRX, which is not compatible with the classic version of Lime Suite. Those who were previously using LimeSDR XTRX with the original Lime Suite repo’s litepcie-update branch, which has been in development for quite some time with the initial focus being larger multi-transceiver boards, should switch now to using Lime Suite NG, which is a continuation of that branch.

Meanwhile, the original Lime Suite project is transitioning to maintenance mode, where critical fixes will be implemented, new issues and pull requests are still welcomed, and new releases will be made as and when appropriate. However, new architectural improvements, features, and hardware support will be implemented via Lime Suite NG.

Fortunately, there is a wrapper which has been developed to ease transition to NG and provide support for using the legacy LMS API, albeit with limitations, such as only supporting designs with a single RF transceiver. In addition, it is possible to have both classic Lime Suite and Lime Suite NG installed on the same system at the same time, and to link applications against either driver stack or indeed both.

For further details see the longer blog post over on MyriadRF.