OVERRIDING MIDI pt.II

[gstopp at fibermux.com]

     Technically the MIDI cable doesn't have three un-used wires, but 
     rather the connectors have two un-used pins.
     
     Yah yah I know details details... :)
     
     Perhaps the MIDI instruments themselves can stay the way they are? 
     Don't modify the existing commercial products, just add a little gizmo 
     to the MIDI ports and connect a network wire to the gizmo. Gosh it 
     would be nice if all machines had the same physical location for the 
     IN, OUT, and THRU ports. Then the gizmo could just stick in the 
     back... okay then make it a separate box, with little cables on it, 
     maybe you could velcro it to the back.
     
     Maybe the MIDI instruments can be controlled passibly well by the 
     existing implementation. Those wishing to drive their MT-32 from their 
     Sound Blaster can still do it. Those wishing to do bigger projects can 
     add the gizmos and the networking.
     
     Okay here goes the overall concept - there would have to be parallel 
     development of the gizmo and the master platform software to support 
     it. Inside the gizmo would be a network interface chip plus a CPU plus 
     code. The code would provide an "agent", and it would intercept and 
     generate network traffic and represent its MIDI instrument to the 
     network.
     
     On the master platform software side, there could be a network 
     diagram. Any device that gets attached to the network will appear on 
     this diagram, "popping" into existence as soon as the cable is 
     attached to it. You could name it, assign attributes to it, dump stuff 
     to it, download a "profile" for the make/model of device it's attached 
     to, etc.
     
     Electrically perhaps something like 100BaseT could be used. The 
     interface adapters are out there, getting cheaper. They're Ethernet, 
     100 megabits, 1514 byte max packet size, 64 min packet size, CSMA/CD 
     media access. Provide new drivers, don't mix PC LAN stuff with it. 
     Cable is twisted pair on phone jacks. Distance is up to 100 meters 
     with good cable, maybe.
     
     I guess my idea is to use existing 100 meg hardware, and make these 
     little agent boxes. The advantages are:
     
     * Way high speed
     * Big packets
     * Cheap cables and jacks
     * Distributed intelligence
     * Bidirectional communications to every device
     * Central control of everything
     
     You can tell I'm a LAN guy, I know :) Just some thoughts.
     
     - Gene
     gstopp at fibermux.com
     
     


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: OVERRIDING MIDI pt.II
Author:  Tony Clark <clark at andrews.edu> at ccrelayout
Date:    2/4/97 12:18 PM

>    What I wouldn't mind seeing is just some extra lines on the MIDI 
>    cable.  
> 
> Huh?  MIDI cables have three unused wires as it is! 
> 
>   -- Don
     
   Then I'd say that's where someone should start.  :)