Subject: RE: [linux-audio-dev] Fwd: Creative's IP concerns
From: Pieter (pieter.palmers_AT_student.kuleuven.ac.be)
Date: Thu Jan 24 2002 - 10:47:38 EET
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> *Are* any of creative's competitors releasing specs for chips that do
> advanced effects? I understand RME and MidiMan have been quite open,
> but they use FPGA chips, and am I right in thinking those are
> off-the-shelf chips with already open specs?
>
FPGA (= 'Field Programmable Gate Array') chips are indeed open spec (well,
most of them). But the problem is that the chip specs are no source of info
for writing drivers. Let me explain a little about FPGA:
An FPGA is a programmable device, but not as a microprocessor/DSP is a
programmable device. It is programmed at gate level, meaning that you state
a whole lot of AND, OR, NOT, ... gates and how to interconnect them. You
then assign the outputs of your combinatorial logic to the output pins of
the chip. All these interconnects and assignments are specified by the
'user', RME in this case.
It might be useful to use this analogy:
FPGA relates to silicon chip design/production as 'vero-board' relates to
PCB design, i.e. you can use an FPGA to prototype a chip design. Of course
that's not all an FPGA is used for. They are also used for designs that are
not worth producing a real chip (if you produce your own chip, you better
make sure you sell a lot of them). Another nice thing is that they can be
reconfigured by software.
Anyway, to get to the point: It's not the specs of the FPGA you need, it's
the specs of what RME did with these FPGA's you need. You can treat their
FPGA as a proprietary chip...
greetings
Pieter
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