[linux-audio-dev] GPL Audio Hardware

The following post came across the the Open graphics list from one of the founders of the project looking for other things to do with the technology they have developed. I thought I'd post it here. Anyone interested should contact Tim. For anyone who dosen't know what OGD1 is see: http://kerneltrap.org/node/6262 I would think that with a little guidence from this list and tight integration with ardour and jack that a _really_ kicking pro audio setup could be produced. ============= From: Timothy Miller <theosib(a)gmail.com> To: ogml <open-graphics(a)duskglow.com> Since we're having a bit of a lull in the discussions on OGML, I thought I might start off a discussion about some ideas I've had that would benefit the Linux community as well as give OGP and Traversal a boost financially. The Open Graphics Project has gotten everyone involved a lot of attention. While it's still possible to get graphics cards supported by open source drivers, that supply is dwinding. At the rate things are going, we'll soon have no choices left. Politically and socially, the OGP is a great idea. Economically, however, it's entirely a different story. Because of the development and costs involved, low-end graphics is actually not such a great place to start. The attention we get because we want to do graphics is a major driving force, but there are much better ways to get our stream of funds started. One such idea that's been brought up before is ultra high end audio. The low-end is solved; it's called AC97 and is found in every PC chipset you can buy today. But imagine taking what would normally cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in audio recording and production equipment and applying the open source model to it. Designing and producing a low-end commodity product is hard. But designing a niche audio product that sold competitively for thousands of dollars is relatively easy to pull off. To begin with, we now become much less cost-sensitive for parts, so the end product can be FPGA-based. That makes OGD1 an ideal development platform for a new audio device; in fact, it's major overkill. Once the new design is finished, we'd mass-produce a new board using a smaller FPGA and include all of the audio I/O hardware directly on-board. I know basically nothing about audio technology. But given what little I do know, here are some things that I think would be relatively easy to do with OGD1 and, what shall we call it, OAC1: - 60+ audio channels (pick your combination of in and out) - (A specialized card could handle lots more channels) - 24-bit precision per channel - Sample rates in the hundreds of kilohertz - Thousands of audio samples and MIDI instruments - Sample-based and algorithmically-generated sound-effects - Fourier analysis, band filters, mixing, and other sorts of math stuff that if I could name it, you'd be impressed - Noise-free signals (because we have experience with graphics) - Accelerated "3D sound" - Accelerated compression/decompression - Lots of other things Given hardware acceleration for most parts of audio processing, plus some excellent piece of open source sound studio software, I don't see why we couldn't produce a combination that is as good as or better than what you find in music recording studios, television stations, and every other place where you might find a need for this. Imagine how much money this could save musicians. The only thing we can't provide is the recording room with the proper accoustics. If a reduced version of the card sold for $1000, we'd have more than a few gamers and multimedia enthusiasts buying it for their 50-speaker surround-sound reality-immersion systems. Were such a project started, I would have to carefully tune my involvement. Since Howard, Andy, and I do not have a background in audio technology, it would probably be best for someone with appropriate experience to lead. But if the community can spec this product and help us design it (we can put into hardware any algorithm you specify), Traversal can produce it. The whole project, from start to finish, would be developed under GPL. This would be quite a major effort, due to the requirement for more than just drivers. Unlike the OGP, which started out of a corporation and has retained some of that flavor, the OAP would have to organize itself and push itself along. In my mind, the first major problem is getting the right people in the community together to develop the specs. So, what do you all think of this idea? Comments? Suggestions? Discussion! :) ================== -- Richard A. Smith