[linux-audio-dev] Slashdot: linux-based music keyboard workstation released

[David Olofson]

On Tuesday 11 November 2003 16.43, Paul Winkler wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 11, 2003 at 06:54:43AM -0800, Thomas Webb wrote:
> > It's just a frikkan computer! I'm sorry, but I'm not a
> > big fan of these synth workstations. They are just
> > crippled computers and in this case, withold the
> > cripple (but double the money). You can just make one
> > of those.. wouldn't be as pretty and you'd have to
> > muck w/ RT-linux.
>
> why RT-linux?

Why not? If it's a turnkey system, the issues with having users 
install such kernel extensions on their own goes away, and cutting 
the worst case latencies from around 1 ms to less than 10 µs does 
help performance. You can use more CPU at lower latencies without 
risking drop-outs.

Granted, DSP code for general purpose CPUs tends to have rather 
variable execution speed, but that's just another factor. Eliminating 
the scheduling latency part from the equation is still an 
improvement.


//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate

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