Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!ogicse!plains!blee
From: blee@plains.UUCP (Blaine Lee SEE ADVTISMENT )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Atari STE Sound chips
Message-ID: <3702@plains.UUCP>
Date: 3 Mar 90 15:13:58 GMT
References: <1990Feb24.222700.22004@newcastle.ac.uk> <729@duteca.UUCP> <1990Feb28.195455.17049@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu> <2062@atari.UUCP> <11231@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu>
Reply-To: blee@plains.UUCP (Blaine Lee SEE ADVTISMENT )
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo
Lines: 41

In article <11231@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu> hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) writes:
>In article <2062@atari.UUCP> apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) writes:
>>The NeXT box has a DSP (digital signal processor), which doesn't just
>>play back sound, it GENERATES it from formulas or other data. That's a
>
>share access to the DSP between multiple tasks. Also, for most of the
>stuff I've played with, the sound is cut-off whenever other tasks are
>driving up CPU and disk use. This makes no sense to me, since the DSP
>should be executing its program independently of the 68030. But the
>end result is that sound on the NeXT gets chopped up horribly if you
>try to do anything else along with it. (Like open a new window.)
>
>Cute, isn't it? Steve Jobs turned a wonderful processor (68000) into a
>toaster (Thin Mac). Now he's turned Unix on a 68030 into a single-user
>single-tasking non-operating system. Will wonders never cease. I wish
>they would...
>--
>  -- Howard Chu @ University of Michigan


Not that I can claim that I know what I am talking about...but...
From a early article in Byte on the NeXT I seem to remeber the memory
that the DSP has is quite limited.  I would guess that the 68030 has
to swap in new data all the time.

Isn't the *only* reason it was installed was for 'CD' quality sound... wasn't
the 030 supposed to handle the tasks?

Working on release 0.9, I am amazed every time I log onto it... just wait
until it gets to 1.4...(isn't that the magic number??)

Another thought: How many songs do you want to hear concurently? 

PS: see you on comp.sys.next

Since I don't think Mr Jobs will be able to reply I felt someone should
offer a little reality.

Blaine Lee

blee @ plains.nodak.edu