An all-in-one Software Defined Radio platform

--- Quote Start ---

I'm new to SoC devices, but could it be possible to replace all this with a SoC device - doing digital down conversion and signal processing algorithms in the FPGA, effectively replacing the current IC. Then use the ARM core as the host micro... Am I on the right track?

--- Quote End ---

Yes, an SoC device plus the external ADC could replace what you have now, but so could;

1) An FPGA with a soft-core processor.

2) An FPGA connected to a "real" processor.

The advantage of the SoC though is that it has a "real" processor in the same package as the FPGA, so you have ample resources to connect the two, and much more processing horse-power than the NIOS II soft-core processor.

Given the choice between the ARM processor and the NIOS II, I'd go for the ARM. That being said, the SoC devices are new, so there is still a lot of teething to be had. Up until now, I have been using (2), as my processing solution, but its a pain, since you often need lots of glue logic to match the processor bus to the FPGA.

Go ahead and have some fun, look at the SoC devices :)

Cheers,

Dave