[sdiy] Daft Idea, LINUX SYNTH

[patchell]

Paul Maddox wrote:

> Jim,
>
> >    1. In general, most of the circuits that are circulating around out
> > there can be called just about anything except orignal.  Those that do
> > have patents on them have long since expired, so they are in the public
> > domain.
>
> This is true, and like with anything in life, there's a million ways to
> crack a nut..
> The concept is that a predefined 'backplane' is setup, with timing and
> voltages all set, after that, anything goes..

    http://www.silcom.com/~patchell/jp2rest/backplane.pdf

    You mean something like this...this I can understand.  And might be of a
slightly smaller scope that what I thought you meant.  Although, coming up
with a backplane to satisfy everybody (I am not even satisfied with the one I
did above there), is not going to be easy.

>
> >    3.  The software (code) part, at least, is pretty easy.  If fact,
> > that is probably the reason why Linux is a success.  The one problem I
> > see however is that a processor will need to be chosen for the code to
> > run on.  Because of the differences between processors, and the level at
> > which the code must be written, it is going to be very difficult to make
> > the code both portable and efficient on all processors.  And, I would
> > imagine that there will be 600 different choices of which micro would be
> > the best to use.
>
> Disagree...
> As long as you stick to the structure of the bus system, you can use
> whatever processor you want...
>

    My experience with embedded software and hardware tends to indicate that
general purpose solutions tend to have kinks that need to be worked out.  If
you can target a system to a specific micro, things generally tend to go
smothers.  The backplane above I tailored for the 68008.  If I was going to
use an AVR, I would have changed the features, since the AVR does not support
the involved interrupt structure that the 68K does.

    Even in my own projects, I am still trying to decide if I want to do
everything with the AVR, 68008, 68EC000, or the AVR Mega, or maybe even the
thumb....

--
 -Jim
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