[LAD] FOSS Ethernet Soundcard

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 06 December 2009, Pieter Palmers wrote:
[...]

>Greets,
>
>Pieter
>
>PS: I didn't want to go into the USB vs FireWire debate, there's plenty
>of material on that. But I think that even USB is a better idea than
>ethernet, not because its technically superior but because there is a
>better ecosystem for audio+usb.

At the expense of a truly horrible latency built into the usb specs.  In 
another field (my interests are best described as eclectic), involving far 
less data at a time than audio, machine control, aka cnc milling and similar 
operations where the machine must be under the computers control at sub-
millisecond intervals for servo's and  < 50 microsecond intervals for stepper 
motors, those who have tried to go down the usb road have generally failed 
rather miserably.  So that road is both well traveled and has been found 
wanting. 100 millisecond latency's just cannot be tolerated for that usage.

Ethernet is everywhere, and is one of the reasons my previous messages 
favored it.  Unforch, while I grant that firewire is hands down superior, and 
I have a couple of ports here, it is apparently a totally daisy chain 
topology from a single host port,  and AIUI, cable lengths are very limited 
in comparison to ethernet.  However there is a 6 port 'hub' at 
<http://www.firewire-1394.com/firewire-hub-fw106.htm> ($38.99)
to expand the limited number (usually 1 or 2) of ports found on todays 
motherboards, and the total cable length to 9 meters, and even the pluggin 
cards available seem to be limited to 4 ports.  I see that for 1394b, cables 
up to 32 feet are available but at the price I'd have to assume there is a 
booster hub in the middle.  With pricy optical convertors, to 3/8's mile 
using glass fiber. (actually it is probably plastic if it has that length 
limitation, glass, good glass, checked out at .4 db loss over 39 kilometers 
when we fed the local cable systems from our studios, several years ago now.  

ATM out of 6 mobo USB ports and 6 hubs making branches as deep as 4 sub-hubs, 
I have only 7 open sockets.  And I don't believe my usb map is anywhere near 
a record setter.

Were there a firewire audio gizmo on site, I might have it working too, so go 
build one, I'm waiting. (and don't forget the daisy chain, most folks ignore 
it) The first port here is for my movie camera, which kino generally runs 
quite nicely, with very nearly realtime video and audio, only a slight echo 
between the speaker on the camera and my speakers. :)

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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<krogoth> Kgnghtbrd: I wouldn't kow, I see no need for a spellchecker yet
<Knghtbrd> you were saying?