EE backs Lime Microsystem’s crowdfunding campaign

20th May 2016

Jordan Mulcare

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Lime Micro has announced that EE is backing the LimeSDR initiative to bring the LimeSDR software defined radio platform into full-scale production. EE are signing up for a 100-unit bundle of LimeSDR kit through the crowd-funding campaign hosted on the Crowd Supply platform. The campaign aims to raise $500,000 to fund the final stages of development and mass production of the LimeSDR platform.

EE has backed the LimeSDR crowd-funding project by signing up for the pledge-level of a 100-unit bundle for the LimeSDR kits. These kits will be given to five UK universities nominated by EE. The universities will receive the kits to develop wireless applications on the hardware and share with the wider research community and encourage further open source wireless innovation.

LimeSDR has introduced a total of 20 pledge-level 100-unit bundles, each for $99,000. Each bundle includes units with high quality enclosures with the logo of the sponsor organisation. The bundles also have a complete suite of software and set of accessories. The offering includes a support package provided directly from Lime Micro.

The LimeSDR platform is a low cost application-enabled Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform that can be programmed to support virtually any type of wireless standard. From WiFi, ZigBee and Bluetooth through to cellular standards such as UMTS, LTE and GSM and to the emerging IoT communication protocols such as LoRa, the platform offers endless wireless connectivity opportunities. For network operators, for example, they can now create and deploy wireless network infrastructure almost anywhere at a fraction of today’s costs. Likewise, educational establishments, research organisations and the maker community can learn and test new communications techniques, unleash new applications and open up new markets using the powerful LimeSDR platform. Potential applications identified already also include RADAR, radio astronomy and IoT gateways.

Ensuring that LimeSDR backers can start development as quickly as possible, Lime Micro has built a wide range of open source tools and resources such as providing a host drive architecture that supports SoapySDR and UHDTM APIs from the outset. SoapySDR is a vendor and platform neutral SDR support library used to provide a C++ API with C wrapper and Python bindings, while UHDTM API support means compatibility with a vast array of existing SDR ecosystem applications. Rapid application development is made possible by support from the Pothos dataflow programming software suite and the GNU Radio open source signal processing toolkit.

Individual LimeSDR platforms are also available through the campaign for $249. Selected backer levels will also include cases, antennas and cables for easy and quick set-up.