Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] good intro article on mLAN
From: Steve Harris (S.W.Harris_AT_ecs.soton.ac.uk)
Date: Sun Feb 18 2001 - 00:27:45 EET
On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 01:17:29PM -0800, Tom Pincince wrote:
> "Now that the Music and Audio Protocol (IEC 61883-6) is used to
> designate what began life as mLAN, Yamaha is using this term (mLAN) to
> refer to a higher level of specific functions that sit on top of the
> 1394 and 61883-6 protocols"
>
> Yamaha did contribute the a+m protocol freely, but mLAN, as described in
> the above quote, must be licensed. A visit to yamaha's web site will
> verify this.
Mmm, yes, that is a cause for concern, but I couldn't find anything
saying that you *have* to license mLAN, there are press releases saying
that you can. Of course it could be just a translation error. As I
said before it might not be legal to use the mLAN logo etc. without
having the implementation verified.
Well, I've emailed Yamaha, and I will see what they say. The guy I spoke
to gave me the impression that Yamaha would be supportive of a Free
mLAN implementation, and if they won't allow a Free implementation then
I, for one, am not interested. More news when I have it.
mLAN defiantly seems to have the support of the music press, and the are
rumors that Roland will be adopting mLAN, which would pretty much seal
our fate.
Worst case it looks like we can have an A+M driver, but it would be a
shame to loose the high level connection management and control features.
Its not clear how you would make a usable multi device system with just
A+M. Random extensions would be about as bad as a proprietary system.
I'm sure that the list of licensees given by DH were previously given as a
list of mLAN licensees, maybe that was mLAN = A+M, either way, yes, there
is little 3rd party hardware, but A+M seems to have a fairly safe future.
If we can implement mLAN, then that would give us A+M compatibility too
of course. What was it about "the great thing about standards..." ;)
- Steve
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