[linux-audio-user] Re: [linux-audio-dev/user] RME is no more

[Mark Knecht]

Jan,
   We sort of started working through some ideas last week some time.
It would be expensive, but I don't think it would be anywhere near the
number Ron talked about. Also, we were not talking about doing
anything particularly commercial. Much like Ardour, Rosegarden, etc.,
are great apps but not necessarily marketable to the mass market, this
card was envisioned by a few of us as something that starts to break
the idea that you had to buy cards where you knew nothing about what
was inside.

   All that said, there is no way that this device would be as cost
effective as a commercially available device. The difference is that
this community would actually have control over what a device like
this does.

   My idea for a while has been to do a 1394-based device that uses
some sort of Xilinx FPGA to implement most of the hardware. Possibly
it might have a hardware mixer, zero-latency monitoring, etc., of
possibly not. Beyond that it's pretty much A/D & D/A, possibly some
digital I/Os like spdif or ADAT.

   Anyway, it's just an idea. Being that I recently find myself
unemployed it seems like a way to pass some time until next year when
I start looking for work again.  (Although Apple is hiring now...)
Anyway, I'm a bit old and out of touch with good tools. For this to be
really interesting I think all the tools need to be Linux tools. I'm
not even sure what's available for doing board design.

   As for internal software, if it was 1394-based then at a minimum we
need a microcontroller to handle config ROM and general packet
transmission/reception issues. We could certainly use someone with
some experience in embedded and/or realtime software design.

   But again, this is mostly talk right now. I'm drawing a couple of
block diagrams to sort of scope out what the parts list might look
like.

cheers,
Mark


On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 10:12:42 -0600, Jan Depner <eviltwin69 at cableone.net> wrote:
> Mark,
> 
>         I'd be really interested in this assuming there is some software
> involved.  I used to write real-time data acquisition systems for GPS
> (early 80's when there were only 3 or 4 birds up).  It just seems like
> you'd need three or four prototypes for testing.  I'd think the money
> requirements would be prohibitive.
> 
> Jan
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, 2004-11-25 at 09:24, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > Hi,
> >    I haven't read anything except this thread. I don't pretend to know
> > what it really means. My understanding of RME's support for Linux was
> > only that they provided some technical info. That info was then used
> > by Alsa developers to do the drivers. RME did not actually develop or
> > support any of the Alsa drivers TTBOMK. (They were 'supportive'.)
> > Please correct me if I'm wrong.
> >
> >    That said, I'm on vacation this week, but still interested in the
> > Open Source hardware sound card solution many of us spoke about in an
> > earlier thread on this list. (I think it was this list...)
> >
> >    Creating something ourselves is a path to freedom and continued
> > support from the community.
> >
> > with best regards,
> > Mark
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 02:47:57 +0100, Marek Peteraj <marpet at naex.sk> wrote:
> > > I forgot, this is the product i'm talking about:
> > >
> > > http://www.rme-audio.de/firewire/ff800.htm
> > >
> > > Marek
> > >
> > >
> 
>