Re: [LAD] FOSS Ethernet Soundcard - IETF Ethernet AVB

On Wed, 2 Dec 2009 23:06:46 +0000
Folderol <folderol@email-addr-hidden> wrote:

> On Wed, 2 Dec 2009 21:49:10 +0100
> fons@email-addr-hidden wrote:
>
> > On Wed, Dec 02, 2009 at 07:21:46PM +0000, errordeveloper@email-addr-hidden wrote:
> >
> > > their XS1 chips seem to be really great,
> > > their are basically every innovative and open-source minded.
> > > the official toolchain is LLVM-GCC based.
> > >
> > > you can use C, C++ or their own XC.
> > > XC is basically C with some stuff omited (like goto and floats)
> > > and XMOS IO stuff added, don't just say WTF, look at it first!
> >
> > It's not just IO stuff added. Their 'C' has parallelism
> > at the statement level, and this supported directly by
> > the hardware - no need for such thing as threads supported
> > by an OS.
> >
> > The chips are really a re-invention of the INMOS Transputer
> > of 25 years ago, and the special 'C' language can be traced
> > back to Occam, the Transputer's native language.
> >
> > It's an immensely powerful combination, and IMHO years ahead
> > of anything else on the market - even if the basic ideas go
> > back at least 30 years.
> >
> > Ciao,
>
> Well, I've just done some (not so) light reading, and this does indeed
> seem to tick all the boxes. There seems to be quite widespread support
> for AVB in the industry, which is always good, although I can only find
> this one vendor producing development kits.
>
> Also, there is one very real problem. The core chip itself is a
> massive BGA device. This would mean we would ether have to always use
> development boards (expensive and clunky) or would have to find a
> contractor that would mount these, possibly on a carrier board/socket of
> some sort. This would only be practical for bulk orders.
>
> As a dedicated audio chip it would however, make life a lot easier (not
> withstanding the single source availability). If we were to redirect to
> this, it would leave a couple of major questions unanswered.
>
> How is the link to Jack implemented in the computer?
>
> How do we make the AD/serial conversion.
>
> What control protocol should we use (OSC)?
>
> Oh dear, that's three :)
>
> It occurs to me to wonder how clear and well defined the AVB protocol
> is, and if it is possible/practical to implement it ourselves on a
> platform of our choice. This is sort of half-way between wheel
> re-inventing, and non-dependence on a single source.
>
> What do others think?
>

Well, this all went quiet didn't it :(

Normally I'd be out and about on weekends but I'm grounded today (car
problems) so I'm sitting here shuffling through old files :o

I found this link that might be of interest.

http://www.xcore.com/projects/xmos-base-avb-endpoint

Judging by the dates, this project is very much alive.

Those boards look rather interesting.

I wonder what the guy is using at the computer end. He doesn't say as
far as I can tell.

-- 
Will J Godfrey
http://www.musically.me.uk
Say you have a poem and I have a tune.
Exchange them and we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.
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