[linux-audio-user] open source firewire

[Ryan Gallagher]

On Sun, 2004-11-28 at 16:20 -0500, Dave Robillard wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-28-11 at 10:55 -0600, Ryan Gallagher wrote:
> > Anyway, to get to the point... isn't it true that firewire by virtue of
> > it's similar-to-USB-nature suffers from the same limitations as USB?
> > Iirc I was told that whatever limitations causing the (IMO) extreme
> > suckage of USB audio on linux will be present in a firewire interface.
> 
> Firewire isn't very similar to USB /at all/, other than the fact that
> they're external busses that can be used to connect things to a
> computer.
> 
> Look at some information about the architechture of each system, they're
> drastically different (Firewire being vastly superior in every single
> way, for the record)
> 
> For one thing, Firewire doesn't require a host computer at all, whereas
> USB of course does.  Firewire devices will figure out the layout of the
> firewire 'network' and establish appropriate master/slave relationships
> all by themselves, no computer needed.  That should give an idea how
> similar they are.

Of course there are major differences.  But there *are* similarities
beyond those listed here.

I'm no expert but this cryptic note from a jack developer hints at the
USB issues... I recall someone saying the same is true for FireWire.

"...problem is due to JACK demanding power of two buffer sizes while USB
devices typically demand an even number of milliseconds. This causes the
sound to break up when running at even moderately low latencies." - joq

So apparently it's about how data is transmitted, milliseconds vs.
size. 

This is all conjecture on my part, I'm not a programmer type.

-ry

-- 
Ryan Gallagher <ruinaudio at comcast.net>