jlg3@uafhcx.uucp (Jennifer L. Garner) (02/04/90)
We are announcing the development of a series of audio cards for the Amiga. They will be designed for professional quality at all of the three system levels we will offer. We are also asking you on the net for suggestions on how we might improve our current products or later products. Level I: Simple A/D and D/A This Amiga Zorro II card will allow 16 bit audio sampling using stereo A/D's and D/A's controlled by the Amiga's 68000. Sample rates will be determined by the controlling software, though optimum sample rates must be established for the design of the antialiasing filters. This is intended as our low-cost option. Level II: Audio DSP DSP is suddenly a computer and audio industry buzzword. We have designed a board using the Motorola DSP 56001 processor, one of the standard DSP processors being used by many audio designers for their systems, including Waveframe, NeXT, and digidesign. At this level, our system will support digital filters, FFT's, and other real-time audio applications, including recording to hard disk. We are currently developing our own Motorola compatible assembler for the 56001, since Motorola is asking $25,000 to buy the rights to port their official assembler to the Amiga. Level III: DSP + Sampling We are adding a feature unique to our Amiga DSP cards- optional on-board memory. We will add to our basic DSP card 2 meg of memory on the card directly addressable by the DSP processor. This will allow faster access of memory, minimizing host bus speed limitations. Initially, the system software will not support pitch shifting, but hopefully we will be able to move into the MIDI expansion box realm. DSP processor speed will limit simultaneous dynamic pitch-shifting and filtering, though an optional add-on DSP daughterboard may make this application more realistic. The initial proposed application for this configuration is a drum machine. People we've talked to have discussed applications ranging from CD quality audio editing to industrial noise cancelling. Our goals from the beginning have been to create a SYSTEM, not just a series of hardware products. We feel that these applications represent the tip of the iceburg as far as what will be developed down the line. We are intending to extend the audio system into a low-cost (in professional terms) audio workstation that will sync into our proposed audio/video editing and animation suite based on the Amiga. Don Kennedy Greg Garner Jennifer Garner Vision Quest 2925 Sunny Lane Fayetteville, AR 72703 (501) 521-0420 email: jlg3@uafhcx.uark.edu gmg@uafhcx.uark.edu