Re: [LAD] FOSS Ethernet Soundcard

From: Karl Hammar <karl@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Tue Dec 01 2009 - 02:55:31 EET

Patrick Shirkey:
> On 12/01/2009 12:46 AM, Karl Hammar wrote:
...
> > If someone provides the usb-knowledge (or firewire, adat, ... etc.)
> > I'd be happy to have it included, and I assume others would not mind.
> > Or, others might include it. I encourage people do their own versions.
> How many chipsets come with support for adat or firewire ootb? I have

Not the faintest idéa.

> used arm, freescale and zilog in the past. None of them did. It will be
> a challenge to find a reasonably priced chipset that has support for all
> the above but maybe there is a family out there that can be easily
> switched without needing major surgery to the board design. The other
> thing to consider is whether the firmware will be open. I have no
> problem with an NDA for development purposes but others might not like that.

I avoid it if I can.

> What chipsets have been put forward/decided on so far?

Not much decided for yet. I have e.g. got response [1] and [2].
In summary:

. AT32NGW100 [3] seems to be an affordable cpu-card we can start with
. 4/8/16 channels of 24bit/48kHz perhaps 96kHz

My preliminary roadmap is in [4].

++

On the mechanical side, the system I will design has to fit into
industrial enclosures like [5].

I'm looking into using a 6U, probably half to quarter width 19"
card frame system. With card size 160x233mm, or I might shrink
that to 100x233mm to make them more easily fit into an enclosure.
I will need the 233mm height for all the i/o connectors. It
feels like connectors will take more space than the electronics,
well, maybe not. But connectors will need more space than what
a single 3U eurocard can provide.

The reason for a card frame system is that the user should be
able to easily pull out or insert a card for repair or upgrade.

This implies a backplane, and I will probably use something
VME-like so one CAN buy a readymade backplane if one wish to.

A card frame system gives you an instant extra cost which
might no be that useful for an audio application. But hopefully
one can reuse blocks of schematics and pcb designs if someone else
would like a single card or a stacked system solution.
I'm currently looking into the cost for the card frame, and I might
do my own drawing and ask the local smithery for the sheet metal
work to decrease cost and to make it fit into the enclosure.

Unless someone convinces me on something else,
I will in the end use the AT91SAM9260 for my project. I don't
see that that should hinder anyone else to use something
else if we can do a suitable cut between the "cpu-part" and the
"i/o-part". Well, in a backplane based system you already have that.
This processor runs at ~200MHz, so you cannot do that much
prosessing on it, but it can run linux. I want an Compact-Flash
socket on the cpu-card for easy software deployment.

...
> >> BTW, I will be able to contribute development funds towards this project
> >> if required once we have a BoM.
> > I think the most valueable contributions would be
> > . a good set of specs to aim at (I cannot provide that)
>
> I would like to add usb-2.0/3.0 to the specs. 2.0 is probably easier but
> 3.0 is more cutting edge.

If you know the tradeoffs, please decide. "My" processor has usb-2.0
onchip (both "host" and "device" port), but only at 12Mbps. To use
something faster we need to have a separate usb chip.
I don't think the sam9260 will be sufficient for driving the usb at
480Mbps, but I might be wrong.

...
> > . testing and evaluation, and equipment for that
> I have an oscilliscope and some other random hardware for testing with.

Same here, and Folderol [2] also had some equipment.

> > . prototype boards for testers
> > . components, chips and mundane things like that
> Once we have an idea of how many people are prepared to contribute to
> the test phase we can get an idea of what kind of costs we are looking

So far, it seems that it is you, me and Folderol.

> at and whether it is better to purchase in bulk or seperately.

Since your company is based in Tailand, and mine in Sweden, I think we
have to split it, at least per continent for common electronic
components, unless we are beginning to sell in volumes.

Pcbs could be a good thing to share. I'm going to get silkscreen
equipment, so when we go beyound breadboard and possible wire/wrap,
I could provide thoose (without plated via's tough).

> > . cummunication, git-repo, webserver, mailing list, ...
> I have a server to use for this or we can go with one of the many
> existing free services.

Me too. But I will not maintain webpages. That is open for someone else.

> > If someone wish to contract me to work on this, I'd be happy, but
> > that is not a requirement.
> I can contribute funds but cannot afford to fund the project completely.

We have to have something going before one knows if any funds are
worthwile.

Regards,
/Karl

[1] http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-user/2009-November/064959.html
[2] http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-user/2009-November/064988.html
[3] http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=4102
[4] http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-user/2009-November/064962.html
[5] http://www.rittal.com/products/ArtikelDatenblatt.asp?ArtNr=1360500&lang=GB

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Karl Hammar Aspö Data karl@email-addr-hidden
Lilla Aspö 148 Networks
S-742 94 Östhammar +46 173 140 57 Computers
Sweden +46 70 511 97 84 Consulting
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Received on Tue Dec 1 04:15:03 2009

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