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Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 12:35:26 +0100
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From: Stephen Thornton <Stephen.John.Thornton@ericsson.no>
To: alsa-devel@alsa.jcu.cz
Subject: Re: Linux scheduler issues. 
In-Reply-To: <02fc01be3f54$b537fa60$3d934ac1@w98bg>
References: <02fc01be3f54$b537fa60$3d934ac1@w98bg>
Reply-To: alsa-devel@alsa.jcu.cz
Sender: alsa-devel-owner@alsa.jcu.cz
Precedence: list

Benjamin GOLINVAUX writes:
 > :>Second: what do we actually want to do? Let's assume that we already
 > :>have drivers for any bit of audio hardware we want: sound cards, MIDI,
 > :>converters, DSPs etc. Also assume that we can do stuff like mixing,
 > :>simple sequencing and the like. Now what?
 > :
 > :Although what you describe sounds "like fun", I personally find the
 > :idea of using my computer as a synthesis engine that I can redefine in
 > :a myriad of ways to be more exciting that "assuming that we have
 > :drivers for the audio hardware".
 > 
 > 
 > Both of you are right !
 > 
 > I think Steve means that once we have a solid foundation to build upon,
 > things really start being fun... I think there are three kinds of fun :
 > 
 > 1) the kernel hacker fun (stage 1) : playing with drivers, cards, kernel,
 > CLOCK_REALTIME, RTLinux and whatever to get a rock steady sound, MIDI and
 > control streaming platform
 > 
 > 2) the dsp engineer fun (stage 2)  : connecting higher level functions
 > (whatever language or library you use) to implement that funky flanger or
 > chorus you want
 > 
 > 3) the musician fun (stage 3) : you connect everything (possibly N linux
 > boxes) and you start pumping basslines ;-)
 > 
 > However, there is a point I don't clearly understand about Steve's claims
 > about RT language : don't you think the heaviest workload to have real-time
 > performance is in kernel-mode code ?
 >

Of course the main work is in the kernel. As far as a language goes, I
already have the language. Everything I have mentioned so far is
already implemented in Erlang. What I/we need is a real time MUSIC
kernel to run on.

rgds
Steve

