[LAU] FireWire audio on Linux: past, present and future

[david]

On 06/15/2012 04:46 AM, Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 6:13 PM, Dave Phillips wrote:
>
>> Excellent article/interviews. However, it ignores a rather salient
>> development - the gradual disappearance of Firewire from desktop and laptop
>> machines. The last time I shopped I was surprised to see that FW, like PCI,
>> is becoming rare hardware, presumably due to improved performance from USB3
>> (?).
>
> It's rather because of USB2 stack on WIndows becoming more solid.
> There were times when some M-Audio's USB2 interfaces couldn't be used
> on Windows at all due to IRQ collisions. A friend of mine gave up on
> one and exchanged it to a FireWire interface some 6 or 7 years ago,
> and that was quite common.
>
> So, I thought about this, but then again I couldn't find much info on
> actual rejection of FireWire by vendors as in numbers, stats etc. So I
> thought I'd rather skip it.
>
> Thunderbolt is an interesting approach, but I've yet to see a single
> audio interface for real work, not fun, using it.
>
>> Otherwise a fine piece. Thanks for the pointer, Alex !
>
> You are welcome :)
>
> Alexandre Prokoudine
> http://libregraphicsworld.org

The real reason for vendor rejection of Firewire is the higher cost of 
licensing Firewire vs USB. Margins on hardware are almost non-existent, 
so every little bit of cost lowered helps.


-- 
David
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http://clanjones.org/david/
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