[Linux-ham] D-Star comment

[Steve Jackson]

If the company in Massachusetts that sells the vocoder chip (I forget their
name) were to sell their chip in unit (or small) quantities, I could
trivially make a small PCB to connect the vocoder to just about any
processor that had enough oomph to address the application plus the
vocoder's input and output.  That way, implementing a non-Icom D-Star node
would be significantly easier since the network control plane is well
documented.  

Here at work, we have LOTS of small MSP430 MCUs and these could easily
handle the tasks.

Admittedly I am a hardware guy so all of my solutions are hardware-based,
but as I see it, this is really a simple problem to solve.  Provided I can
get the chips on a non-OEM basis, that is.

What would a good price for such a board be?  Would experimenters buy such a
board at, say, $50?  $75?

Perhaps I am missing something and it isn't as easy as it looks to me.  I am
sure I will be corrected if it's so.  But if it is that simple, and if I
knew there was a demand, I'd seriously consider making this board available.

Steve KZ1X/4