6 Dec
2009
6 Dec
'09
5:54 p.m.
On 12/07/2009 05:36 AM, Gene Heskett wrote:
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.
Slightly off topic but...
I have had the pleasure of working with multiple usb devices (in the
1000's) and I can say that I was able to get a 4 core, intel with 8GB
RAM to handle 500 devices at the same time with additonal pci->usb
cards. The only ones worth any time are made by Belkin. To stream data
to so many devices at one time you need a lot of available memory. 2GB
will handle about 100 devices nicely without sacrificing any transfer speed.
A single USB 7 port hub can be made to chain 1x7 port hub-> 7 x 7 port
hub-> 1 x 4 port hub to give a total of 50 devices at one time. You can
modularise this chain to get 100 devices running off 1 usb bus. I have
my systems installed at La Louvre for instance where they are running
very well.
I had no chance to test latency for audio recording but from my
experience there are only two usb-2.0 chips on the market that get
anywhere near the 480Mb/s bandwidth available for usb-2.0 and they are
both used by Belkin.
My experience with usb cable lengths > 3 meters is that they require a
booster.
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd