[linux-audio-dev] Audio synchronization, MIDI API

[John Check]

On Sunday 15 August 2004 05:48 am, phil at plus24.com wrote:
> 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.
>

I gave m-dist a whirl this afternoon and you my friend, are on the right 
track. I may be able to help with testing.
For some reason, my USB mouse wasn't autodetected (passing the autoprobe 
option seemed to help) but it locked up once I got a desktop.
I was impressed that it booted into X because I have an Nvidia card and thats 
always a hassle.

> 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.