[linux-audio-dev] Linux DSP Hardware?

Andreas Kuckartz A.Kuckartz at ping.de
Tue Feb 22 10:11:25 UTC 2005


One could think about using 3D graphics hardware for audio DSP purposes. There
are commercial projects which do that (only for Windows AFAIK).

Cheers,
Andreas

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Olofson" <david at olofson.net>
To: "The Linux Audio Developers' Mailing List"
<linux-audio-dev at music.columbia.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 10:21 AM
Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Linux DSP Hardware?


> On Tuesday 22 February 2005 05.41, jipi wrote:
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I was thinking,
> >
> > we always have dedicated graphic cards for gaming/3D rendering etc..
> > why don't we have some h/w optimised audio algos running on some
> > FPGA/DSP/ etc...
>
> Because there isn't enough demand for it. Only musicians have any
> serious use for that kind of hardware, whereas half the planet needs
> accelerated graphics - especially with all the eyecandy that
> Microsoft, Apple, the KDE and Gnome people etc have decided we
> need. ;-)
>
>
> > on linux...
>
> Dito. The state of accelerated audio on Linux should realistically
> relate to the corresponding on Windows and Mac in the same way as 3D
> acceleration on Linux vs Windows and Mac - and it pretty much does, I
> think... Some popular hardware is supported by Free/Open Source
> drivers to some extent, some vendor has tried to support the Linux
> community to some extent, and that's about it.
>
>
> > look at these.. are there simple/cheap/open versions of these?
>
> Simple: Not possible, unless you'll settle for a toy synth...
>
> Cheap: Cheap and good are basically mutually exclusive when it comes
> to hardware. The best you can do is to use high volume components.
> Currently, that means standard general purpose DSP chips for small
> devices, and probably AMD64 chips for heavier gear.
>
> Open: Only if you're ready to pay a premium for the "lost revenue"
> resulting from opening up the "trade secrets". You don't want to
> design some cool hardware only to have some foreign company make a
> clone of it, sell it dirt cheap (*you* paid the development costs!)
> and put you out of business. That doesn't mean you have to close both
> the design *and* the programming info, but try to explain that to the
> management of your average company... Also try to explain why they
> should be taking the risk of making reverse engineering easier for no
> significant monetary gain.
>
>
> > http://www.lyrtech.com/DSP-development/audio/index.php
> > http://www.zpeng.com/Articles/Section1/digitalaudio.html
> > http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/partners/kit-ate-dmck.html
> > http://lts1pc19.epfl.ch/repository/Simeonov2004_737.pdf
> >
> > what we require is a separate card which can take a few channels of
> > audio lines and process them in a cheap FPGA/DSP (put in your
> > favourite
> > **HW LADSPA** algo).. and route them back to the main audio card..
>
> If it's actually supposed to do something serious, it won't be cheap.
> Really powerful DSPs are nowhere near cheap.
>
> If you're into dedicated hardware anyway, why not just hook up a PC
> (SBC, perhaps; though you still get more power/$ if you buy standard
> mainstream PC components) running RTLinux or RTAI? Cheaper and much
> easier to deal with...
>
>
> > of course I am for the idea of using clusters of linux PCs while
> > some of them do different types of audio processing,
> > but not everyone has access to more than 1 PC.. : >
>
> Well, if you can get any DSP hardware worth using, you might as well
> get another PC... As an extra bonus, you get a "universal machine",
> as opposed to some oddball DSP card that you're hard pushed to even
> get it to do what you purchased it for.
>
>
> Now, if you really don't want to use another PC, and want lots of dirt
> cheap processing power, how about learning some EMU10k1 asm? :-)
> Seems to have more DSP power than your average studio sampler - and
> since it's a high volume product,  just like the 3D accelerators, it
> lets you see some of the "silicon is free" effect. That's the closest
> audio gets to the state of 3D acceleration currently, AFAIK.
>
>
> //David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate
>
> .- Audiality -----------------------------------------------.
> |  Free/Open Source audio engine for games and multimedia.  |
> | MIDI, modular synthesis, real time effects, scripting,... |
> `-----------------------------------> http://audiality.org -'
>    --- http://olofson.net --- http://www.reologica.se ---
>




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