[linux-audio-dev] Linux kernel HZ, audio latency and how to measure?

[David Olofson]

On Friday 18 August 2006 23:07, Stephen Cameron wrote:
[...]
> xruns are, I think, JACK's equivalent of my deadline-missed
> message.  It calls such tardiness an "xrun".  JACK is the
> Jack Audio Connection Kit, an app that is useful for sync'ing
> and communicating audio data between various audio apps that
> know how to talk to JACK.

Actually, I think xrun is just audio hacker shorthand for "overrun or 
underrun". :-)

An overrun is when your application is too late to read imput data 
before buffers are full and data is lost.

An underrun is when your application is too late to write data before 
the output buffer runs out of data, thus causing a glitch in the 
output. (Often heard in CD burning discussions, where a buffer 
underrun will ruin the CD being written, unless the CD writer can 
pause writing instantly in a controlled fashion.)


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

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