28 Jul
2009
28 Jul
'09
8:27 p.m.
It feels like my several year old PC will crap out soon for one reason
or another, so I need a replacement, better sooner than later.
This time it should be a laptop and I heard that formerly IBM and now
Lenovo thinkpads are of good build quality, even if they only come
with intel CPUs and cost an arm and a leg.
So, do you have any experience with those for audio work?
I'd be most interested in the T and R series and more recent models.
Also helpful would be some data that's impossible to find on websites:
- What chipsets are built in?
- do the usb buses and the like share interrupts with something nasty
like graphics?
Helpful commands to gather that data:
cat /proc/interrupts
lspci
lsusb
Thanks in advance for any help.
Regards,
Philipp
28 Jul
28 Jul
9:18 p.m.
On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:27:12AM +0200, hollunder(a)gmx.at wrote:
It feels like my several year old PC will crap out
soon for one reason
or another, so I need a replacement, better sooner than later.
This time it should be a laptop and I heard that formerly IBM and now
Lenovo thinkpads are of good build quality, even if they only come
with intel CPUs and cost an arm and a leg.
So, do you have any experience with those for audio work?
I'd be most interested in the T and R series and more recent models.
Also helpful would be some data that's impossible to find on websites:
- What chipsets are built in?
- do the usb buses and the like share interrupts with something nasty
like graphics?
I've been using my R51 for five years or so (and this message
is sent from it), and it has never failed to do what I wanted.
This one is from the IBM years, and it's certainly solid and
dependable. The only thing that has degraded so far is the
battery, down to more or less half its original capacity.
I don't know if Lenovo is up to the same standards. Never
used the modem, but all the rest has worked nicely. Also
never used any 3D-graphics drivers.
As for audio I've mainly used it with USB cards, either for
recording or mixing, always with -n 3 -p 256 and that worked
very well. I've used it to mix 24-track Ardour sessions.
Of course chipsets etc. change faster than you can imagine
and current machines from the same stable could and will be
entirely different. But I can't say anything bad about this
one.
Some additional info:
fons@zita2:~> cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 424020 XT-PIC-XT timer
1: 1803 XT-PIC-XT i8042
2: 0 XT-PIC-XT cascade
3: 129145 XT-PIC-XT uhci_hcd:usb3, ohci1394, ipw2200
4: 2 XT-PIC-XT uhci_hcd:usb2
7: 2 XT-PIC-XT parport0
8: 0 XT-PIC-XT rtc0
9: 9402 XT-PIC-XT acpi
10: 670962 XT-PIC-XT yenta, uhci_hcd:usb1, radeon@pci:0000:01:00.0
11: 2 XT-PIC-XT ehci_hcd:usb4, Intel 82801DB-ICH4, Intel 82801DB-ICH4
Modem
12: 97569 XT-PIC-XT i8042
14: 13348 XT-PIC-XT libata
15: 122766 XT-PIC-XT libata
NMI: 0
LOC: 0
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
fons@zita2:~> lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI
Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI
Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI
Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller
(rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller
(rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM
(ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem
Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 [Mobility FireGL 9000]
(rev 02)
02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
02:00.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments Unknown device 802a (rev 01)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller
(Mobile) (rev 03)
02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev
05)
fons@zita2:~> lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 1668:2441 Actiontec Electronics, Inc. [hex]
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Ciao,
--
FA
Io lo dico sempre: l'Italia è troppo stretta e lunga.
29 Jul
29 Jul
5:54 a.m.
On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:10:50 +0200
Fons Adriaensen <fons(a)kokkinizita.net> wrote:
On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:27:12AM +0200,
hollunder(a)gmx.at wrote:
Thanks to you and everyone else who replied on and off list so far.
It seems like your R51 is equipped with TI chipsets while the newer
T61s have Ricoh. TI seem to be the best working ones and only some
ricoh seem to work, and I don't know which ones.
I found some IEEE 1394 specific information here:
http://ffado.org/?q=node/251
There's some valuable information on all of those things
here: http://www.lenovo.com/psref/
but sadly the chipset vendor/model isn't listed.
That it works well enough with usb is also helpful, thanks.
Is there someone with the most recent models like T400/T500, R400/R500?
Thanks,
Philipp
It feels like my several year old PC will crap
out soon for one
reason or another, so I need a replacement, better sooner than
later. This time it should be a laptop and I heard that formerly
IBM and now Lenovo thinkpads are of good build quality, even if
they only come with intel CPUs and cost an arm and a leg.
So, do you have any experience with those for audio work?
I'd be most interested in the T and R series and more recent models.
Also helpful would be some data that's impossible to find on
websites:
- What chipsets are built in?
- do the usb buses and the like share interrupts with something
nasty like graphics?
I've been using my R51 for five years or so (and this message
is sent from it), and it has never failed to do what I wanted.
This one is from the IBM years, and it's certainly solid and
dependable. The only thing that has degraded so far is the
battery, down to more or less half its original capacity.
I don't know if Lenovo is up to the same standards. Never
used the modem, but all the rest has worked nicely. Also
never used any 3D-graphics drivers.
As for audio I've mainly used it with USB cards, either for
recording or mixing, always with -n 3 -p 256 and that worked
very well. I've used it to mix 24-track Ardour sessions.
Of course chipsets etc. change faster than you can imagine
and current machines from the same stable could and will be
entirely different. But I can't say anything bad about this
one.
Some additional info:
fons@zita2:~> cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 424020 XT-PIC-XT timer
1: 1803 XT-PIC-XT i8042
2: 0 XT-PIC-XT cascade
3: 129145 XT-PIC-XT uhci_hcd:usb3, ohci1394, ipw2200
4: 2 XT-PIC-XT uhci_hcd:usb2
7: 2 XT-PIC-XT parport0
8: 0 XT-PIC-XT rtc0
9: 9402 XT-PIC-XT acpi
10: 670962 XT-PIC-XT yenta, uhci_hcd:usb1,
radeon@pci:0000:01:00.0 11: 2 XT-PIC-XT
ehci_hcd:usb4, Intel 82801DB-ICH4, Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem 12:
97569 XT-PIC-XT i8042 14: 13348 XT-PIC-XT
libata 15: 122766 XT-PIC-XT libata
NMI: 0
LOC: 0
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
fons@zita2:~> lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O
Controller (rev 03) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM
Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel
Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller
#1 (rev 01) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM
(ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01) 00:1d.2 USB
Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M)
USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel
Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev
81) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC
Interface Bridge (rev 01) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation
82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel
Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller
(rev 01) 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation
82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M)
AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller:
ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] (rev 02)
02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus
Controller (rev 01) 02:00.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments
Unknown device 802a (rev 01) 02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel
Corporation 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile) (rev 03)
02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG
Network Connection (rev 05)
fons@zita2:~> lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 1668:2441 Actiontec Electronics, Inc. [hex]
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Ciao, 
2:15 p.m.
On 2009-07-29T09:54:13, hollunder(a)gmx.at wrote:
Thanks to you and everyone else who replied on and off
list so far.
It seems like your R51 is equipped with TI chipsets while the newer
T61s have Ricoh. TI seem to be the best working ones and only some
ricoh seem to work, and I don't know which ones.
As I mentioned off list there is a firmware change that effects
the Ricoh IEEE 1394 devices. Someone, I believe, mentioned that
it resolved audio issues for them but check the archives. I do
not have Firewire devices:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-68451
(Fix) Some CardBus and IEEE 1394 devices may slow down the
performance.
Lenovo, btw, offers ISO images for flashing the BIOS. It makes
that process SO much easier than having to create a DOS
bootable image yourself.
/Allan
--
Allan Wind
Life Integrity, LLC
<http://lifeintegrity.com>
30 Jul
30 Jul
5:50 a.m.
On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:01:23 +0800
Ray Rashif <schivmeister(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Damned right..gotta watch out for that ricoh fw chip.
I got the suggestion to forget about firewire and look at expresscard
solutions instead. This shouldn't have the same problem as it's just
PCIe, or so I've heard.
Firewire wouldn't have many benefits and one problem with a really
mobile FW solution is that it's pretty much non-existant since there
are almost no notebooks with 6-pin FW connecters and even if they have
that I'm not sure they really can power an audio interface.
So if you need a power source anyway there's not much reason to use FW
besides maybe being a little bit more flexible than with expresscard.
Philipp
6:14 a.m.
On Thursday 30 July 2009 09:50:01 hollunder(a)gmx.at wrote:
So if you need a power source anyway there's not
much reason to use FW
besides maybe being a little bit more flexible than with expresscard.
Ever tried to connect several expresscard sounddevices at once?
With firewire it is _really_ easy: just daisy-chain them together. They are
then even able to sample-sync all by the firewire-clock. (All other
technologies have to use external sync!) I would say this counts as _a lot_
more flexible.
And its really not "look out for ricoh-chipsets" but "look out for the
broken
ricoh-chipsets". There are ricohs that work extremely well. (I know from my
own expirience.)
Have fun,
Arnold
6:28 a.m.
Arnold Krille wrote:
On Thursday 30 July 2009 09:50:01 hollunder(a)gmx.at
wrote:
The biggest ExpressCard interface on the market atm sports 64 channels
of IO, and there's no limitation to do more than that.
If you do more than 64 channels of IO, you might want to go for
something else but a notebook, since that wouldn't be a very lightweight
solution anyway :)
Flo
--
Machines can do the work, so people have time to think.
public key DA43FEF4 x-hkp://wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net
So if you need a power source anyway there's
not much reason to use FW
besides maybe being a little bit more flexible than with expresscard.
Ever tried
to connect several expresscard sounddevices at once?
6:40 a.m.
On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:14:14 +0200
Arnold Krille <arnold(a)arnoldarts.de> wrote:
On Thursday 30 July 2009 09:50:01 hollunder(a)gmx.at
wrote:
Ok, I forgot about that possibility. With flexibility I meant that
normal PCs might have a FW port whereas they most likely don't have
Expresscard.
So if you need a power source anyway there's
not much reason to use
FW besides maybe being a little bit more flexible than with
expresscard.
Ever tried to connect several expresscard sounddevices at once?
With firewire it is _really_ easy: just daisy-chain them together.
They are then even able to sample-sync all by the firewire-clock.
(All other technologies have to use external sync!) I would say this
counts as _a lot_ more flexible. And its really not "look out for
ricoh-chipsets" but "look out for
the broken ricoh-chipsets". There are ricohs that work extremely
well. (I know from my own expirience.)
Have fun,
Arnold
The question here is: Which ones are the broken ones and which ones the
good ones?
I wouldn't know where to look for that info, do you?
Thanks,
Philipp
6:49 a.m.
The question here is: Which ones are the broken ones
and which ones the
good ones?
I wouldn't know where to look for that info, do you?
I would never trust any list for hardware that should be fine with
Linux, ensures there will be some revision that isn't fine. I guess you
need to
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=ricoh+chipset+linux&aq=f&oq=&…
to find links to threads similar to "Problems with Ricoh Chipset" and
there seems to be several.
Ralf
9:55 a.m.
Hi,
On Thursday 30 July 2009 10:49:25 Ralf Mardorf wrote:
Actually we try to have a list over at
http://subversion.ffado.org/wiki/HostControllers
Anyone who has a problem with his host-adaptor (and is using it with
ffado/freebob) is encouraged to add his info there. Or have someone of the
ffado-devs add it there.
Have fun,
Arnold
The question
here is: Which ones are the broken ones and which ones the
good ones?
I wouldn't know where to look for that info, do you?
I would never trust any
list for hardware that should be fine with
Linux, ensures there will be some revision that isn't fine. I guess you
need to
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=ricoh+chipset+linux&aq=f&oq=&…
z42Y to find links to threads similar to "Problems with Ricoh Chipset" and
there seems to be several. 
1 Aug
1 Aug
1:01 p.m.
On Thursday 30 July 2009 07:55:49 Arnold Krille wrote:
On Thursday 30 July 2009 10:49:25 Ralf Mardorf wrote:
Actually we try to have a list over at
http://subversion.ffado.org/wiki/HostControllers
Anyone who has a problem with his host-adaptor (and is using it with
ffado/freebob) is encouraged to add his info there. Or have someone of the
ffado-devs add it there.
For what it's worth..
I have a T61 (I got it after my R51 died after about 3.5 years); I'm fairly
content with it, though I don't have the perfect realtime kernel yet for it
(still have to build some essential modules for my use; hdaps and vloopback).
The firewire I have only used with a Canopus video digitizer, and that signal
seemed to come in without any problems (I used it in several performances,
rehearsals and workshops for hours on end); I was using it with the vloopback
kernel module and then using it with motiontrackosc, which is based on the
opencv library. But since it's the small firewire connector, it doesn't power
the device.
sincerely,
Marije
T61:
interrupts:
CPU0 CPU1
0: 301896 308819 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 7 5 IO-APIC-edge i8042
8: 24 15 IO-APIC-edge rtc0
9: 10109 10126 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
12: 2687 2633 IO-APIC-edge i8042
14: 12425 11916 IO-APIC-edge ide0
16: 10958 10327 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb5, yenta
17: 402 425 IO-APIC-fasteoi firewire_ohci, uhci_hcd:usb6,
HDAIntel
18: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb7
19: 14 14 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb2
20: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb3
21: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb4
22: 0 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb1
29: 9181 8814 PCI-MSI-edge eth1
30: 34615 34128 PCI-MSI-edge ahci
31: 82547 77601 PCI-MSI-edge i915@pci:0000:00:02.0
NMI: 0 0 Non-maskable interrupts
LOC: 251274 227920 Local timer interrupts
RES: 53784 53930 Rescheduling interrupts
CAL: 238 134 Function call interrupts
TLB: 3646 4259 TLB shootdowns
TRM: 0 0 Thermal event interrupts
THR: 0 0 Threshold APIC interrupts
SPU: 0 0 Spurious interrupts
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
nescivi@pantometheus:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory
Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960
Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 0c)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network
Connection (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI
Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI
Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI
Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio
Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1
(rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2
(rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3
(rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4
(rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5
(rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI
Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI
Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI
Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI
Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HBM (ICH8M-E) LPC Interface
Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE
Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA
AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev
03)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC
(rev 01)
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
15:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev
04)
lsusb (with an external mouse and keyboard attached; the Lenovo entry is the
internal camera).
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 003: ID 0518:0001 EzKEY Corp. USB to PS2 Adaptor v1.09
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 046d:c016 Logitech, Inc. M-UV69a/HP M-UV96 Optical
Wheel Mouse
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 17ef:1004 Lenovo
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
The
question here is: Which ones are the broken ones and which ones the
good ones?
I wouldn't know where to look for that info, do you?
I would never trust any list for hardware that should be fine with
Linux, ensures there will be some revision that isn't fine. I guess you
need to
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=ricoh+chipset+linux&aq=f&oq=&…
h4 z42Y to find links to threads similar to "Problems with Ricoh Chipset"
and there seems to be several. 
3 Aug
3 Aug
5:52 p.m.
Woohoo..I'm safe. Saffire Pro 10 working well.
FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
4 Aug
4 Aug
8:38 a.m.
Ray Rashif wrote:
Woohoo..I'm safe. Saffire Pro 10 working well.
FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
Good news :). Dunno, but maybe BIOS versions and other issues might have
an effect to this. If so, this might be interesting for
http://subversion.ffado.org/wiki/HostControllers.
29 Jul
29 Jul
5:52 a.m.
Hallo,
hollunder(a)gmx.at hat gesagt: // hollunder(a)gmx.at wrote:
It feels like my several year old PC will crap out
soon for one reason
or another, so I need a replacement, better sooner than later.
This time it should be a laptop and I heard that formerly IBM and now
Lenovo thinkpads are of good build quality, even if they only come
with intel CPUs and cost an arm and a leg.
The Thinkpads seem to have a pretty active net community doing sites like
www.thinkwiki.org, which are very helpful. There's nothing bad about Intel
CPUs, actually I consider them the best choice ATM for laptops, especially if
you get a device with an Intel gfx chip inside, they have excellent FLOSS
drivers. Personally I agree that Thinkpads are a bit overpriced, you can get
equivalent laptops cheaper from manufacturers like Acer or MSI, which are the
two companies I have first hand experience with: I have an MSI S260 which
currently gets replaced by an Acer Timeline 3810T. Both are well supported by
Linux. The new one requires bleeding edge software, i.e. Debian unstable in my
case. On the ACER, no interrupts are shared when AHCI is enabled, but I guess,
that's normal for AHCI:
$ cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 31601 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 7186 IO-APIC-edge i8042
8: 99 IO-APIC-edge rtc0
9: 13850 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
12: 25164 IO-APIC-edge i8042
16: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb3, uhci_hcd:usb7
18: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb8
19: 24 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb6
21: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb4
22: 182 IO-APIC-fasteoi HDA Intel
23: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb2, uhci_hcd:usb5
26: 138998 PCI-MSI-edge i915
27: 8011 PCI-MSI-edge ahci
28: 61621 PCI-MSI-edge iwlagn
NMI: 0 Non-maskable interrupts
LOC: 15229 Local timer interrupts
SPU: 0 Spurious interrupts
RES: 0 Rescheduling interrupts
CAL: 0 Function call interrupts
TLB: 0 TLB shootdowns
TRM: 0 Thermal event interrupts
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
I didn't yet do any hardcore audio tests on that laptop, it's running an
upstream large latency kernel. With laptops, I think, it's important to know
your ways of using it. For example, the Acer is not the fastest device around
(it's just a single Core CPU), but it's very light (1.65kg) and has an amazing
battery life (up to 8h with dimmed display), so it's great to take on the road
which is where I will be using it the most and where I can deal with a slower
CPU, but not with a huge and heavy monster. The other extreme would be a
netbook, but I prefer the 13" screen of the Acer - my eyes don't cope well with
10" screens, and Atoms just don't cut it in the long run for audio work. So to
me, the Timeline is a good compromise, but your compromise will probably look
different.
Ciao
--
Frank
6:01 a.m.
On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:52:48 +0200
Frank Barknecht <fbar(a)footils.org> wrote:
Hallo,
hollunder(a)gmx.at hat gesagt: // hollunder(a)gmx.at wrote:
Thanks Frank,
I had a look at thinkwiki but couldn't find what I'm looking for.
I also thought about netbooks but they won't cut it in the long run and
I'll need a laptop eventually anyway.
Could you post a lspci of your new acer as well? It's not quite what I'm
looking for but it might be helpful anyway.
Thanks,
Philipp
It feels like my several year old PC will crap
out soon for one
reason or another, so I need a replacement, better sooner than
later. This time it should be a laptop and I heard that formerly
IBM and now Lenovo thinkpads are of good build quality, even if
they only come with intel CPUs and cost an arm and a leg.
The Thinkpads seem to have a pretty active net community doing sites
like www.thinkwiki.org, which are very helpful. There's nothing bad
about Intel CPUs, actually I consider them the best choice ATM for
laptops, especially if you get a device with an Intel gfx chip
inside, they have excellent FLOSS drivers. Personally I agree that
Thinkpads are a bit overpriced, you can get equivalent laptops
cheaper from manufacturers like Acer or MSI, which are the two
companies I have first hand experience with: I have an MSI S260 which
currently gets replaced by an Acer Timeline 3810T. Both are well
supported by Linux. The new one requires bleeding edge software, i.e.
Debian unstable in my case. On the ACER, no interrupts are shared
when AHCI is enabled, but I guess, that's normal for AHCI:
$ cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 31601 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 7186 IO-APIC-edge i8042
8: 99 IO-APIC-edge rtc0
9: 13850 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
12: 25164 IO-APIC-edge i8042
16: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb3, uhci_hcd:usb7
18: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb8
19: 24 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb6
21: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb4
22: 182 IO-APIC-fasteoi HDA Intel
23: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb2, uhci_hcd:usb5
26: 138998 PCI-MSI-edge i915
27: 8011 PCI-MSI-edge ahci
28: 61621 PCI-MSI-edge iwlagn
NMI: 0 Non-maskable interrupts
LOC: 15229 Local timer interrupts
SPU: 0 Spurious interrupts
RES: 0 Rescheduling interrupts
CAL: 0 Function call interrupts
TLB: 0 TLB shootdowns
TRM: 0 Thermal event interrupts
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
I didn't yet do any hardcore audio tests on that laptop, it's running
an upstream large latency kernel. With laptops, I think, it's
important to know your ways of using it. For example, the Acer is not
the fastest device around (it's just a single Core CPU), but it's
very light (1.65kg) and has an amazing battery life (up to 8h with
dimmed display), so it's great to take on the road which is where I
will be using it the most and where I can deal with a slower CPU, but
not with a huge and heavy monster. The other extreme would be a
netbook, but I prefer the 13" screen of the Acer - my eyes don't cope
well with 10" screens, and Atoms just don't cut it in the long run
for audio work. So to me, the Timeline is a good compromise, but your
compromise will probably look different.
Ciao
6:10 a.m.
Hallo,
hollunder(a)gmx.at hat gesagt: // hollunder(a)gmx.at wrote:
I had a look at thinkwiki but couldn't find what
I'm looking for.
I also thought about netbooks but they won't cut it in the long run and
I'll need a laptop eventually anyway.
Could you post a lspci of your new acer as well? It's not quite what I'm
looking for but it might be helpful anyway.
Sure, see below. This is for the cheapest Timeline (Intel gfx, single core, no
DVD). You can get them with Dual Core as well, with Radeon gfx, and larger
models also have a DVD drive (which I don't want to be forcesd to carry around
all the time.)
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev
07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated
Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics
Controller (rev 07)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev
03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev
03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
(rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev
03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev
03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev
03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev
03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
(rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M-E LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) Thermal
Subsystem (rev 03)
01:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 5100
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Attansic Technology Corp. Device 1063 (rev c0)
Ciao
--
Frank
2 Aug
2 Aug
3:25 p.m.
hollunder(a)gmx.at wrote:
It feels like my several year old PC will crap out
soon for one reason
or another, so I need a replacement, better sooner than later.
This time it should be a laptop and I heard that formerly IBM and now
Lenovo thinkpads are of good build quality, even if they only come
with intel CPUs and cost an arm and a leg.
So, do you have any experience with those for audio work?
I'd be most interested in the T and R series and more recent models.
Also helpful would be some data that's impossible to find on websites:
- What chipsets are built in?
- do the usb buses and the like share interrupts with something nasty
like graphics?
the x61s, while otherwise a very nice notebook, shares an interrupt
between the 1394 and sata controller, which is kind of nasty when you
want to do hd recording over a ffado device. i ended up adding a cardbus
adaptor to obtain decent latencies.
5373
days inactive
5380
days old
linux-audio-dev@lists.linuxaudio.org
17 comments
10 participants
participants (10)
-
Allan Wind -
Arnold Krille -
Florian Faber -
Fons Adriaensen -
Frank Barknecht -
hollunder＠gmx.at -
Jörn Nettingsmeier -
nescivi -
Ralf Mardorf -
Ray Rashif