Release notes — v0.1.0¶
v0.1.0 is the first public course release of zynq-sdr-course. The release establishes the repository as a bilingual engineering course that connects DSP theory, modeling, fixed-point design, HDL simulation, SDR board experiments, IQ recording and measurement-style analysis.
Release theme¶
theory -> modeling -> fixed-point -> HDL / FPGA -> SDR board -> measurement data -> analysis -> engineering report
The course is intentionally not only a collection of notes. It is structured as a reproducible engineering route with documentation, executable labs, CI checks, generated figures and evidence-oriented reporting.
What is included¶
Documentation and site¶
- MkDocs + Material site structure.
- Russian and English learning paths.
- Main README entry points for English and Russian readers.
- Visual course map, portfolio view and system-level route pages.
- Course readiness, completion, evidence and reproducibility pages.
DSP foundation¶
The first release includes a stronger DSP backbone:
- FFT windows and spectral analysis;
- FIR low-pass filtering;
- digital mixing;
- decimation;
- FFT complexity and selected-bin detection;
- convolution vs correlation;
- window trade-offs for weak-signal detection.
Fixed-point and FPGA bridge¶
The course includes early bridges from floating-point DSP models to hardware implementation:
- fixed-point FIR workflow;
- fixed-point digital mixer;
- HDL / FPGA workflow pages;
- streaming interface and testbench labs;
- FIR RTL mapping;
- NCO mixer RTL;
- AXI-Stream wrapper;
- float vs fixed vs RTL comparison;
- BPSK-oriented HDL smoke checks and control-wrapper examples.
SDR and measurement path¶
The release introduces the hardware-facing SDR route:
- frontend workflow and board setup pages;
- frequency planning;
- gain staging and overload discussion;
- synthetic capture analysis;
- impairment calibration;
- chain architecture;
- frequency translation;
- loopback metrics;
- packet receiver detection;
- CIC decimator as a DSP -> fixed-point -> FPGA bridge.
IQ recording and analysis¶
The course includes reproducible IQ-data discipline:
- IQ metadata guide;
- IQ dataset manifest guide;
- real-data policy;
- CI16, WAV and multi-format reader labs;
- generated synthetic IQ workflows;
- deterministic QPSK replay dataset generation and analysis;
- dataset manifest template;
- checksum-based reproducibility expectations.
Evidence and reporting discipline¶
The release adds engineering guardrails:
- safety guide;
- bring-up checklist;
- measurement error notes;
- measurement uncertainty guide;
- measurement report template;
- final measurement report labs and project templates;
- hardware evidence index and validation backlog.
Executable course path¶
The release includes reproducible smoke checks through tools/tasks.py and tools/run_all_labs.py:
python tools/tasks.py docs
python tools/tasks.py labs
python tools/tasks.py hdl
python tools/tasks.py smoke
Representative executable labs generate figures and JSON metrics under docs/assets.
Promoted evidence since the first draft¶
- The status pages now track a measured Block 11 internal loopback result rather than the older high-error bring-up blocker.
- The QPSK replay dataset is generated locally and analyzed by a dedicated workflow.
- The evidence map, maturity matrix and completion matrix now point reviewers to current proof artifacts and remaining gaps.
Acceptance criteria for this release¶
v0.1.0 is considered ready when:
- MkDocs builds in strict mode through CI;
- README files describe the current end-to-end course route;
- key labs include expected outputs or acceptance criteria;
- HDL smoke path is documented;
- safety and dataset policy are linked from the course structure;
- status, evidence and completion matrices agree with each other;
- release notes summarize the current learning path;
- no large raw IQ captures are committed directly into normal Git history.
Known limitations¶
- The filled Block 11/12 implementation report still needs repeatable board and external RF results.
- External measured packages should keep improving through manifests, plots, metrics and limitations.
- Some advanced labs are roadmap-style and will continue to mature after this first release.
- The course currently prioritizes deterministic scripts and CI-friendly artifacts over notebook-first interactivity.
Next release direction¶
The next milestone should focus on:
- clean-boot BPSK/QPSK success-rate evidence linked from the filled implementation report;
- bitstream-to-board correlation for the routed integrated design;
- real or generated dataset manifests with analyzer outputs kept in sync;
- model-vs-RTL comparison for CIC or another multirate DSP block;
- more complete measurement reports with EVM, SNR, BER and uncertainty budgets;
- polished final project examples.