CREAMWARE NEEDS A DSP CARD WITH MEMORY

ohmelas · Post by **ohmelas** » Fri Mar 29, 2002 4:53 am

As the prices of DDR memory have dropped wouldn't it make sense if Creamware in version 4.0 or sooner could support a daughterboard DSP card or PCI card that had memory on it.

This could and would save PCI bandwidth and if I understand their set up corectly use the bandwidth of the STDM over the top of the cards.

Is this something that is posisble? This would reduce the need for a lot of DMA stuff that boggs down a system.

Any real DSP geeks out there who could explain this process?

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Fri Mar 29, 2002 5:28 am

Hi,

Scope cards have onboard RAM, but that's apparently never used. It could be though, but I guess CW has to re-write it's codes. And I don't know how compatible those would be w most DSP cards which don't have onboard RAM.

I agree w you that this would solve almost any DMA problems. But how much RAM would you like? Do you use some Reverbs or do you want 1GB samplebanks? Edit: didn't know you were talking 'daughterboard'. Would be cool if it were expandable, yes

CW will have to bring a very flexible RAM implementation, cross-compatible w onboard as w PC RAM. Their are some apparent failsafe setups, which will make the computer a very powerfull tool. Although some limitations must be respected, ie. if you have problems w USB then kick it off. Got a wrong motherboard? Get another one. The price of a mobo is nothing compared to the price of your software and your cards. As I said before, don't put fackie tires on your Ferrari. Put on the best you can get.

I believe, as PCI and RAM bandwidth are increasing drastically, soon there will no more PCI overflow problems or any of those. I hope manufacturers leave some 33MHz 32bit PCI slots on their motherboards.

I don't consider onboard RAM as a good project for the CW programmers. It's too late now. Would been great if they had implemented that RAM from the first time, but at that time (around '96 I think) it was far too expensive. And BX motherboards did a great job.

Once more a personal opinion.

Regards,

at0mic.

[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2002-03-29 11:22 ]

[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2002-03-29 13:30 ]

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Fri Mar 29, 2002 3:22 pm

I posted this in exact thing (memory onboard for an "UltraSampler" board, and a memory expansion for the system that doesn't use PCI bus) back in July01 over here
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 5&start=20

Actually - go visit that thread right now - and check out my list of ideas on the second page. They have quite a few of them out or coming out as devices now!

ohmelas · Post by **ohmelas** » Sat Mar 30, 2002 7:09 am

Hey I was thinking some more after reading some of sub's ideas. A design path for CW mkiii.

The new Analog Devices Sharc chips are even more efficient. A Pulsar Mkiii board with the new Sharc chips could add craploads of DSP to an existing system. I'm willing to bet double it--though I've not done the math yet.

Add some ultrafast memory, the new chips have several pipelines for it.

I gues my only question for CW is how easy will it be to recompile the code and still make it backwards compatible.

Lastly, Sub, I guess they made NOAH. Hmm. Cool. I'm thinking about picking up a rack unit myself. Neathuh...

[ This Message was edited by: ohmelas on 2002-03-30 07:24 ]

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Sat Mar 30, 2002 9:08 am

One thing that worries me with everyone complaining to Creamware to use more modern DSPs - it would be really likely the two systems would no longer be compatible. But maybe not - Creamware has been really good with it's DSP system, keeping support & compatibility. With ProTools when they switch to new DSP cards, you can't mix and match, right? I suspect it would be the same w/ a hypothetical Creamware MK3 board with new SHARCs. Be careful what you wish for

That said - I'd probably still buy it, and keep my current DSPs, too.

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Sat Mar 30, 2002 9:48 am

You can mix and match Protools cards.
Or at least could.
The new HD ones uses a new TDM bus so that's why you can't use them together with the older cards.
But you can use an old DSPfarm card with your Mixplus system.

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Sat Mar 30, 2002 9:32 pm

If you read the spec of the new Tiger Sharc, it says, the code created for older sharc run natively on the newer one. The code optimized for the new one (tiger) won't run on older. So, theoricaly, to scope platform should already be running on those new Tiger Sharc.

It wouldn't surprise me that on the next musicmesse (2003) Creamware annonces a third generation of hardware including those new Sharcs... Really...

[ This Message was edited by: marcuspocus on 2002-03-31 10:15 ]

ohmelas · Post by **ohmelas** » Sun Mar 31, 2002 8:39 am

I just checked on the analog devices page myself and they are fowards compatible too Marcuspocus. The other cool thing is the memory on the chip and the pipelining set up of the new chips. Woah momma. It's going to be fast. The chips can be had for relatively cheap too $5/chip in large volume. I'll assume that porting it to a PCI card wouldn't be the worst but isn't there a new PCI standard That means that CW could spend more R/D money on the software. Maybe a few more virtual synths to use this new power.