Future Apple Audio Hardware...
OK, for this leap of imagination, we're going to need to know a couple of things:
1) Apple just bought a major DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software/hardware house. This includes the ability to work with non-linear editing many multiple audio tracks.
2) Apple is on the HyperTransport consortium
3) nVidia is also on the HT consortium, and happens to build this cool little HT-enabled device, called the MCP:
<a href="http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=mcp"; target="_blank">http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=mcp</a>;
4) It's not that difficult to build a RapidIO to HT bridge- just add latency!
The 2¢ MCP explanation is that it's a "media control processor", using HT to talk to the controlling chipset. It has some really nice audio features, including a 5.1 encoder, and can handle 256 simultaneous stereo audio streams.
So where to go with this:
Apple, to cut costs, could be using the MCP as a companion to a future chipset, using HT to connect them.
It also means that we'll get a software complement to this hardware- we'll be able to mix 5.1 sound in with our home movies, something that's a bit difficult to do at the moment. At the higher, pro-end, you'll be able to use one Mac to edit your video, edit your audio, mix them all together, and burn your DVD.
As a friend of mine pointed out- it's the dream machine for any aspiring garage band. Make your own professional-looking (or not, if that's your style) videos.
Plus this conjecture neatly wraps up all sorts of rumours about Apple's cooperation with nVidia, their presence on the HT consortium (giving a legitimate discrete reason why Apple can at the same time join Moto and IBM on RapidIO), and point at the future of Mac audio- since we've been on stereo-only for way too long a time.
Pat? Perhaps. But a lot of little pieces all of a sudden fit together surprisingly well...
-HOS
1) Apple just bought a major DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software/hardware house. This includes the ability to work with non-linear editing many multiple audio tracks.
2) Apple is on the HyperTransport consortium
3) nVidia is also on the HT consortium, and happens to build this cool little HT-enabled device, called the MCP:
<a href="http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=mcp"; target="_blank">http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=mcp</a>;
4) It's not that difficult to build a RapidIO to HT bridge- just add latency!
The 2¢ MCP explanation is that it's a "media control processor", using HT to talk to the controlling chipset. It has some really nice audio features, including a 5.1 encoder, and can handle 256 simultaneous stereo audio streams.
So where to go with this:
Apple, to cut costs, could be using the MCP as a companion to a future chipset, using HT to connect them.
It also means that we'll get a software complement to this hardware- we'll be able to mix 5.1 sound in with our home movies, something that's a bit difficult to do at the moment. At the higher, pro-end, you'll be able to use one Mac to edit your video, edit your audio, mix them all together, and burn your DVD.
As a friend of mine pointed out- it's the dream machine for any aspiring garage band. Make your own professional-looking (or not, if that's your style) videos.
Plus this conjecture neatly wraps up all sorts of rumours about Apple's cooperation with nVidia, their presence on the HT consortium (giving a legitimate discrete reason why Apple can at the same time join Moto and IBM on RapidIO), and point at the future of Mac audio- since we've been on stereo-only for way too long a time.
Pat? Perhaps. But a lot of little pieces all of a sudden fit together surprisingly well...
-HOS
Comments
Thanks.