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

[R Parker]

Hi,

--- Mark Knecht <markknecht at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.

That isn't entirely obvious. Look at what I said about
 markup. Around one half or two thirds the cost for
devices like this are tacked on by distributers and
retailers.

Your idea seems to be a "scratch my itch" plan which
eliminates distributer and retailer markup. It
probably means no promotional costs. Now we're
canceling our membership to the Dallas Oilmen's Club
and moving to Arkansas because the legislature just
legalized the collection of roadkill. These numbers
are fathomable but there's still challanges.

Parts like circuit boards which are not commodity need
to be purchased in bulk. One offs are probably out of
the question. Right or wrong?

Believe me, I am not trying to discourage anyone. It
would be an awesome accomplishment and I'd want to own
one of these tools. I watched someone else go through
the dream, design to prototype and then stumble into
the boiling vat of manufacturing and distribution.
That poor SOB is probably livin' in a tar paper shack
somewhere on the backroads of Arkansas, sending
letters to granny Clampett begging for her roadkill
possum recipe and wishin' he'd have solved the
business issues before the engineering and design
stuff.

If there's anything I can do to assure that we meet at
a cement pond in Hollywood, let me know.

ron

 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
> > > >
> > > >
> > 
> >
> 






	
		
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