[sdiy] Software problem hardware solution? + US patents

[Glen]

At 04:40 AM 10/10/02 , Scott Gravenhorst wrote:
>This is exactly what old PCs are for.  I've used CPUs as old as 286/12 with a
>cheap ISA MIDI card.  Some rather simple C or Assembly code does this job
>easily.  

Of course, the advantages of an AVR would be things like: 

  much lower power consumption
  much smaller size and weight
  much more portable--take it anywhere
  can be made much more rugged than a PC
  possibility to embed inside the musical keyboard
  the thrill of designing quality hardware yourself.

Advantages for the PC solution:

  free supplemental heating for your home
  no sentimental trauma from discarding that old PC
  more (and heavier) hardware--less likely to be stolen
  easily multitasked (between Windows crashes)

:)

later,
Glen