Prototype Support ADRV9008-1 & Xilinx Zedboard

Hello all,

For our capstone project our group is required to create an SDR environment using the ADRV9008-1 receiver chipset operating around 2.4 GHz.

Ultimately we are in need of four channels, so two chips, but before we get to building our own board, we would like to get the SDR environment running on the evaluation boards.

We are using the Xilinix Zedboard 7000 (which uses the Xilinx Zynq-7000 AP SoC XC7Z020-CLG484) in conjunction with the ADRV9008 evaluation board. It is simple to connect up the boards, but we are having difficulty in interfacing between the two (since this is the first design project we have done using Linux).

So a couple questions we are looking to get answered:

1. Is setting up the Linux system on the XIlinx board necessary for operating with the ADRV9008 receiver?
   1. If so, can we actually do the development in Windows, or will it be easier in Linux?
2. Looking ahead, if we were to switch to a simpler/smaller FPGA or processor, would we be able to do that without using any of the Linux work specified in the getting started guides?

Any feedback, tips, or help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Nathan