> but i get 256 sound devices! bwahahahaha! > (/dev/dsp0 -- /dev/dsp255) and > they're mixed in hardware!
Sound and graphics are going in opposite directions. While the insatiable demand graphics algorithms have for computing power require newer and faster GPUs to do stuff that used to be done by the CPU, the (relative) glut of CPU power has obsoleted outboard audio processor chips. Your old school monolithic soundcard architecture is nearly extinct. Sound I/O will be handled by USB 2.0 and Firewire in the times to come. The economies of scale now make it more attractive to write sound generation software using the x86/SSE instruction set rather than, say, Creative's Emu which is neither present everywhere nor increasing in power every 6 months. The final nail in the traditional soundcard's coffin would be a very responsive, fine-grained scheduling kernel; this is because scheduling latency is a lot more critical with sound. Once that happens, an offboard sound chip operating independently of the CPU brings nothing to the table anymore. Actually, even with today's non realtime kernels, that is virtually the case already!! This trend is a Good Thing(tm) because you can now parcel out your CPU power for whatever purpose you want. There is no synth chip sitting idle when you're not playing sound anymore. In the thick of doing other stuff, a 'near realtime' scheduling kernel will do its best to ensure that, as in the days of offboard sound-chips, your softsynth will never hiccup as long as you don't ask it to chew on more data than it can actually handle. And of course the most wonderful aspect of 'virtual soundcards/synths' is the unlimited flexibility. Ah, the bounties that software and mathematics (FFT) bring to music... -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
