Re: [LAU] Small instrument hardware module

On 22/10/2014 11:45, linux-audio-user-request@email-addr-hidden wrote:
> In my experience there's a greater risk of overheating without a fan and
> the ARM (allwinner) chipsets are prone to that. My bet is a low power x86
> processor/unit with a (quiet) fan will out perform and outlast an ARM
> chipset without.
I did some simple benchmarks on a Allwinner A20 board (cubieboard)
recently. The benchmark consist of computing a bunch of sine oscillators
(second order resonator filter), generally used for modal synthesis and
other types of sound synthesis. The results I got from the A20 when
clocked at 1GHz are suprisingly good: 1000 theoretical oscillator can be
computed in a 128 samples period, while on my quad core-i5 I get 1500.
On a 7-years onld Centrino Duo I get about 850. While this don't stand
as a real-world benchmark (buffer transfers are not taken into account)
and I haven't optimized for the architectures (but just let g++ go with
-O2) you get the idea.

I didn't experience overheating on the A20 but the tests are not
continuous as you would during a performance, so I won't bet it will
last long. :)

I have a sensation that generally the kernel is also quite unstable on
most platforms unless a silicon manufacturer is there to help (as it
happens with some TI chips) and in general I would prefer Intel for
reliable live performance. However as a researcher I am trying to
squeeze ARMs to perform as musical instruments and I think they can work
well if the industry supports kernel development. But I'm wondering if
this will continue to happen, since the eastern mobile market is
crushing the sales of the reliable manufacturers.

Going slightly OT: I really hate how the market is pushing on short
products lifecycles, following the trend of the mobile industry. On one
side the audio and music market is similar to the consumer market as
users want to have ever new and fancy products with appeal. On another
side it is similar to the industry/autmotive market as you need reliable
products that last for years. What you should find inside is sturdy
electronics with a support of >10 years and the possibility to find new
pin-compatible ICs after those 10 years from the manufacturer. There's
too much consumerism in the silicon industry following the mobile
"revolution" meaning that everything contains electronics is destined to
last less and die shortly. Or enter the market in pre-beta stage (which
nowadays is considered a "feature"). The only way to get long term
support is sticking to the old good silicon manufacturers, hoping they
won't discontinue your MCU/CPU/DSP soon (as they are doing to cut costs).
I hope someday people will realize that not all electronic products are
like smartphones.
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Received on Wed Oct 22 16:15:03 2014