Subject: RE: [linux-audio-dev] open-source like hardware
From: Pieter (pieter.palmers_AT_student.kuleuven.ac.be)
Date: Sun Jan 13 2002 - 11:13:01 EET
>
> (cut)
> >Maybe a better approach would be, if you are thinking about low
> level stuff,
> >to use FPGA or so, but again, it's expensive.
> (cut)
>
> Small note:
> The RME Hammerfall DSP cards are built upon a Xilinx FPGA.
>
I know
> But I don't think they have their implementation openly available :)
>
From a commercial point of view that would be a very controversial strategy.
> They use Xilinx FPGAs at the exercise sessions for
> Digital Electronics and Processors at ESAT, don't they ?
> Maybe they could lend you one when they don't need them themselves.
> Provided you took care of it :)
>
I don't know if they are so fond of lending them, it's quite expensive
stuff.
I don't think that they paid for them, but nevertheless.
Besides, as you had the DEP (=Digital electronics & processors) course, you
probably know that it's not easy to implement stuff on FPGA. Maybe it's as
hard as designing a DSP board, but once the DSP board is designed, and the
specs & docs are out in the open-source world, I think the programming of
the DSP can be done by lot's of people.
My point of view is that when a board is designed and all specs are
released,
that enough people would be spending time writing (embedded) software for
the
thing. I know that, if such device would exist, I would. My 'plan' was/is to
create a board that is reprogrammable, much like bios updates on PC's. That
way there is a framework for all sorts of sound stuff. Such a board could
for example be programmed as an aRTS accelerator, a multichannel soundcard,
a MPEG encoder/decoder, a reverb unit, ... I know the creativity of the
open-source community is unlimited (all of these things are already present
on linux).
Something like the TC-PowerCore (www.tcworks.de), but completely open for
anybody. Maybe more like the DSP boards made by bittware (e.g. Spinner) for
developing custom DSP solutions without having to build the board.
The main problem that limits the choice of DSP is that there has to be a
free
compiler. I don't think anyone is willing to write a complete audio firmware
in DSP assembly. So we need a free C compiler, and I only know of one: for
the
TMS320C3X series.
> best regards
> vini
>
> PS: I don't do electronics, but CS :)
> (so I had DEP as a course last year)
I didn't expect someone from our faculty to be on this list.... :)
Makes things a lot easier.
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