On Sat, 2004-11-20 at 00:19 +0000, Simon Jenkins
wrote:
You were talking about a slightly more difficult
and expensive thing than I
was. I was thinking about:
1. A DSP implementation, not FPGA
2. A firewire interface, not PCI
3. Creating a "reference implementation" not a finished product.
I like the idea of a DSP-less reference implementation, then maybe a low
end and a high end DSP option. This has the side benefit of making the
choice of DSP more modular. Also some people just like DSPs, and some
people are into host signal processing...
I was thinking of just enough DSP power to handle the protocol and to move
and buffer the data between I/O and host. I didn't mean actually doing audio
signal processing on the DSP itself, I just meant using one as a more
convenient
and accessible platform for developing the protocol than an FPGA.
Given the protocol someone might then come along and implement it in an
FPGA, or they might use a more powerful DSP and start doing some serious
signal processing on the board itself. They might even stick fairly
close to the
reference design if its any good. The real point of the development effort
would be an open protocol: The reference hardware design would just be a
means to that end.
Simon Jenkins