Pothosware consists largely of two major project umbrellas: The Pothos framework and its respective data processing toolkits; and the SoapySDR library and its respective hardware support modules.
The Pothos project is a complete data-flow framework for creating topologies of interconnected processing blocks. Topologies can be designed and tested graphically, and deployed over a network. The Pothos framework API enables users to quickly create custom processing blocks with minimal boiler-plate. Processing blocks can support computational offload and integration with SoC and DMA devices. The project also has a diverse set of processing and hardware support toolkits.
The SoapySDR project is an open-source generalized API and runtime library for interfacing with SDR devices. With SoapySDR, you can instantiate, configure, and stream with an SDR device in a variety of environments. Most off the shelf SDR hardware platforms are supported by SoapySDR, and many open source applications rely on SoapySDR for hardware integration support. In additon, SoapySDR has bindings for development frameworks like GNU Radio and Pothos.
The Pothos SDR development environment makes it easy for Windows users to start exploring and developing in the exciting ecosystem of open-source software-defined radio. We bundle as much as we can into a single installer, pulling in not just Pothos and SoapySDR projects, but other big frameworks and applications such as GNU Radio, GQRX, and CubicSDR.
The following diagram is a partial overview of how Pothosware projects fit into the larger open-source SDR ecosystem.
Pothosware is an integral part of the open source SDR ecosystem. We have a variety of users, contributors, and maintainers that regularly reports bugs, create pull requests, and contribute entire toolkits and hardware support projects.
Want to contribute back some custom processing blocks, or have your hardware supported?
We will gladly host and setup repository access on the Pothosware github organization.
As part of bringing a new project into the fold, we help with wiki setup, URL links, and project announcements.
We also help with cross platform compilation, regular releases, and packaging the project for various platforms.
Interested in getting involved? We could always use a hand. Visit the contact page or checkout some of these community resources:
The Pothos project began in late 2013 with the goal of creating an open source data-flow framework.
The project has since grown to include SoapySDR, a general framework for supporting SDR devices,
which has been widely adopted by the SDR community as a whole.
We believe in promoting open source in the SDR community and beyond, and that both businesses and individuals should have access to quality open source frameworks. Therefore, the vast majority of the projects managed under the Pothosware umbrella including frameworks and core toolkits are available under commercially friendly licenses.
Josh Blum is the founder of Pothosware and the primary developer of the Pothos framework. He has over a decade of experience in data-flow and parallel processing architectures, and extensive experience in SDR, FPGA, and DSP development. Josh is the creator of the GNU Radio Companion and has contributed extensively to the GNU Radio and Volk projects.
Its takes a lot of volunteer effort to maintain the software projects and packaging needed for Pothos and SoapySDR.
If you appreciate the effort, or are using this software commercially, please consider donating with the PayPal link below.