================ | FAUST 0.9.10 | ================ GRAME - Centre National de Creation Musicale - is happy to announce the release of FAUST 0.9.10. This version introduces several new possibilities. It is the first official release to offer full parallelization of the C++ code to exploit multicore architectures, as well as automatic generation of mathematical documentation. ------------- About FAUST : ------------- FAUST (Functional Audio Stream) is a functional programming language specifically designed for real-time signal processing and synthesis. A distinctive characteristic of FAUST is to be fully compiled. The FAUST compiler translates DSP specifications into very efficient C++ code that works at sample level. It targets high-performance signal processing applications, libraries and audio plug-ins for a variety of audio platforms and standards. A same FAUST specification can be used to easily generate native JACK or ALSA applications, as well as CSOUND, LADSPA, MAX/MSP, PD, Q, SC and VST plugins. The Faust distribution can be downloaded at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/faudiostream Two mailing lists are available: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/faudiostream-devel https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/faudiostream-users In order to test FAUST without installing it, please refer to the Online Faust Compiler: http://faust.grame.fr ------------ What's new : ------------ A) C++ Code Generation ------------------ The Faust compiler translates Faust programs in C++. Several new options have been added to control how the C++ code is generated, in particular : - control of the floating point precision : single (default), double, quad - code re-organization in simple loops to facilitate automatic vectorization - automatic parallelization based on OpenMP - automatic parallelization based on a specific "Work-Stealing" algorithm B) Mathematical Documentation ----------------------------- Using formal methods the Faust compiler can produce automatically a complete mathematical documentation of a Faust program. This mathematical documentation is generated in Latex. It includes equations, block-diagrams and listings. The documentation can be customized by the user via <mdoc>...</mdoc> tags inserted in Faust programs. This documentation can be used to : - preserve on the long term a Faust program in a purely mathematical form, independently from Faust or any other programming language - bring some help to understand and debug a FAUST program by giving the equations of each output signals according to the input signals and the user interface parameters. C) Language Extensions ---------------------- - Sequential composition operator (A:B) has been restricted to expressions so that outputs(A) = inputs(B). This restriction has several advantages. It improves error detection, makes the code easier to understand and provides nicer and simpler formal semantic ( A:B is B o A) - User interface labels can now contain metadata. For example the label "volume[unit:dB][tooltip:control the output volume of the reverb]" contains two metadata, a unit definition and a tooltip message than can be exploited by an architecture file to fine tune the user interface. - User interface labels can contain absolute and relative pathnames to better control the hierarchical structure of the user interface. For example the label "../volume" points to place the widget one group higher in the hierarchy. D) New Audio Architectures -------------------------- Several new audio architectures have been included, in particular Action Script, CoreAudio, CSOUND, Chuck, Pure, SND-RT, for a total of about 20 different plateforms now supported : - Action Script - Alsa - ChucK - CoreAudio - CSOUND - Jack - LADSPA - Matlab - MaxMSP - Octave - OSS - PortAudio - Pure - PureData - Q - Sndfile - Snd-RT - SuperCollider - SynthFile - VST - VSTi (mono) --------------- Acknowledgments --------------- Many persons have been contributing to the FAUST project by providing code for the compiler, architecture files, libraries, examples, documentation, scripts, bug reports, ideas, etc. I would like to thank them and especially: Fons Adriaensen, Tiziano Bole, Thomas Charbonnel, Damien Cramet, Etienne Gaudrin, Albert Graef, Stefan Kersten, Victor Lazzarini, Matthieu Leberre, Mathieu Leroi, Kjetil Matheussen, Remy Muller, Nicolas Scaringella, Stephen Sinclair, Travis Skare, Julius Smith, as well as my colleagues at GRAME, in particular : Dominique Fober, Stephane Letz and Karim Barkati, and from the ASTREE project : Jerome Barthelemy (IRCAM), Alain Bonardi (IRCAM), Raffaele Ciavarella (IRCAM), Pierre Jouvelot (Ecole des Mines/ParisTech), Laurent Pottier (U. Saint-Etienne) Yann Orlarey GRAME