[sdiy] New to list - and DSP development

[Magnus Danielson]

From: "Cornutt, David K" <david.k.cornutt at boeing.com>
Subject: RE: [sdiy] New to list - and DSP development
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:00:54 -0600
Message-ID: <85E74AC7E9EF034888F03C878C4115720D8186 at XCH-SE-1V1.se.nos.boeing.com>

David,

> From: Kenneth Elhardt [mailto:elhardt at worldnet.att.net]
> > I've never
> > understood why the MIDI people didn't use 38.4 kBaud which is 
> > a standard
> > rate.
> 
> It goes back to when the first MIDI spec was being written,
> around 1980.  Back then, 19.2k was considered the outer limit
> for garden-variety serial port hardware; 38.4 was considered
> unreachable without using more expensive hardware, and the
> group that was writing the spec wanted to keep it cheap.

Keeping it cheap is *very* true.

> The 31.25k rate was the compromise they came up with.
> I think the rate comes from dividing down a crystal that
> was commonly used in NTSC TV circuits at the time.

No, it didn't come from that. 

Cheers,
Magnus