Subject: RE: [linux-audio-dev] question regarding an alternative to theRME's PCI-to-Multiface card
From: Erik Walthinsen (omega_AT_temple-baptist.com)
Date: Tue Mar 12 2002 - 01:19:45 EET
On Mon, 2002-03-11 at 14:55, Ivica Bukvic wrote:
> Thanks for the reply. So, what you are saying is that if I buy one of
> the "back-loading" interfaces that support cardbus (32-bit) interface, I
> should have the same performance as on the notebook's pcmcia cardbus,
> right?
Assuming there's nothing bizarrely wrong with the bridge chip used on
the adapter, yes, you should get identical performance.
> Also, is there any solution out there that offers front-loading through
> 5.25" bay? My understanding is that the cardbus (32-bit cards with gold
> plating on the tip) cards cannot be utilized due to length of the IDE
> cable that connects the PCI card with the reader drive. But, what if the
> reader contained all the reading hardware so that the IDE cable would be
> theoretically then replaced by a faster interface (i.e. firewire) and
> connected to the on-board pci card? Is there such a thing that is still
> affordable?
First thing is that while it looks like an IDE cable, it had better not
be an actual IDE cable or the adapter will support nothing but ATA cards
(i.e. Type 3 hard drives and CF cards). You can get adapters to plug CF
cards right into the IDE bus, because PCMCIA ATA 'is' IDE.
As for the style of interface you suggest, I haven't seen anything, and
I'd expect it would be almost impossible to do for any number of
reasons. The biggest is that since CardBus is PCI, no matter what you
do you have to retain the PCI 2.2 semantics over the bus. PCI 2.2 is a
really thick spec book with all sorts of very timing-critical things, so
much so that I've heard of a board made at Tektronix that simply
wouldn't work in half the PCs out there, even though they had confirmed
that the card itself was fully compliant...
In the long run though I think firewire is the correct solution, but
only when directly attaching the outboard hardware to the PC. That's
where I think RME really screwed everyone over, by using "1394" cables
and connectors and such, but not making it actual firewire. ~$300 for
an interface board that should cost $20 is hard to swallow for me.
Designing viable firewire-based audio I/O is one my back-burner
projects.
Erik Walthinsen <omega_AT_temple-baptist.com> - System Administrator
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