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Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 12:51:55 +0100
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From: Stephen Thornton <Stephen.John.Thornton@ericsson.no>
To: alsa-devel@alsa.jcu.cz
Subject: Re: Hi - need some help?
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Benjamin GOLINVAUX writes:

 > GREAT ! This is EXACTLY where I also want to help...
 > 
 > We have a _project_ of a software package for PRO (not by the features (of
 > course we'd like to...) but by the PRECISION of the output.. I mean : you
 > KNOW the latency and you are not fooled like you are with some f####Cubase
 > or Cakewalk with those f@#@@ 750 ms latency... Pardon my virtual rude words
 > but I'm getting really nervous with those apps)....
 > 

Totally agree with you.

 > But we'd like to support high-end cards such as : Yamaha DSP
 > Factory, Event Darla/Gina/Layka, Ensoniq APS, Creamware Pulsar/Scope (wow..
 > its getting really pricey) and whichever $$$ card you might find !)....
 > 
 > In fact, we should contact card manufacturer and only buy this card where an
 > ALSA driver is possible... I've heard rumors about Yamaha DSP factory...
 > Anyone ???
 
Absolutely.

I have some ideas for how to get a precise output timing. These range
from the slightly esoteric, to the quite radical. I have quite a bit
of experience with real time systems and operating system design, and
my dream for years has been to have an operating system (yes an entire
operating system) designed specifically for music applications. The
first step though is to get a good code base in the public domain of
the layers that sit on top of the OS - to this end Linux is the best
development system I can think of. My current idea is to use a
realtime system running under Linux that can handle timing and such
properly. I have worked on developing *operating systems* that run on
top of other operating systems, and know a lot of the techniques
needed. When everything works, you can usually get rid of the base
operating system, and lo and behold ... a dream machine. All of this
depends on Linux to make it possible though.
I'd like to use a language called Erlang to do this (www.erlang.org),
but a lot of the guts of the system will be good old C and Linux.

Back to sound cards though. If the ALSA driver/API is generic enough
( I think it is) then we can start with something immediately.

Best regards,
Steve

PS Yes I'm serious.

