=?iso-8859-1?Q?Re:_[linux-audio-dev]_Audio_synchronization, __MIDI_API?=

[phil at plus24.com]

The current top Ethernet standard specifies max transmission speed of
10GBit/sec - 1394b is 800MBit/sec.  

You can also run Ethernet over Firewire.  IIRC the max. number of
devices on a 1394 chain is 63 making Ethernet more suitable for large
clusters of interconnected MIDI workstations.  

But to an extent arguing over which PHY layer is like a Vi / Emacs
flamewar.

[plug]

For a working example of a MIDI over Ethernet (and UDP) have a look at
IEEE P1639 (was called DMIDI):

www.plus24.com/ieeep1639

This acts as a bridge between ALSA and the network so all MIDI apps can
bounce MIDI data between remote machines without any code changes.

I'm also working on an embedded Linux for clustering audio workstations,
Live CD available (USB mouse support broken just for now, PS/2 OK):

www/plus24.com/m-dist

This is also a call for participation in the final development of the
standard as well as application development.

Regards

Phil


On Sunday, August 15, 2004, at 09:36  am, Steve Harris wrote:

But if youre going to do that, why use ethernet? You'd need dedicated
NICs
and switches, so you may as well use firewire, which has dedicated
realtime channels, more bandwidth and doesnt require switching. 400meg
Firewire cards are down to about 7 or 8 euros in the UK now.

The only disadvantage is that you can't (right now) cheaply run firewire
over long distances, but taht will change once firewire over CAT5 cards
come down in price, and this is rarely an issue with clusters anyway.