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View Full Version : Maybe one day...


damoy
03-22-2006, 03:32 PM
...we can have our DAWs and all samplers/plugins in one powerful system.

I mean the the SunFire E25k server scales up to 72 processors with 144 threads and up to 576 GB memory, and can have up to 72 integrated, high-bandwidth PCI slots. If the software was written for this system, it could theortically do it today. Imagine being able to load up 72 plugins - each having their own processor dedicated to them. And then having over 100x the ram available today to run your samples from!

Sure, I know a system like this costs a million bucks, and this is all just a completely unrealistic daydream. Then again, I remember upgrading my original pc memory from 64k to 128k for 400$ - now I can get a gig stick for under $50 (Order of magnitude = 1600 x 8 = 12800 times! - divide a million by that and it's not so much ;) ). So just maybe... one day in the distant or not too distant future?

*POOF* - - - regaining consciousness...
Bela D Media
03-22-2006, 04:06 PM
Are you Daniel Moy?
Von Richter
03-22-2006, 04:26 PM
In my opinion we have sufficient technology right now. The problem is that computers aren't designed for sample libraries and so on. They are designed as a one-size-fits-all device. You could make purpose-built hardware with incredible amounts of ram, multiple processors, and a dedicated glitch-free OS, but the investment would far outweigh the return you would get (think of the demand and hence sell price of a hardware synth vs. a computer that everyone in the world buys), so we're stuck with the bog standard PC for now.
Hermitage59
03-22-2006, 04:41 PM
Hmm....
Audio configured CRAY would be nice......




:cool:
ZareOne
03-22-2006, 06:00 PM
http://hilbert.math.uni-mannheim.de/~seiler/cray.jpg

Audio enhanced Linux inside, running GPOA...

WOW!!!
Doug Wellington
03-22-2006, 06:05 PM
Audio configured CRAY would be nice......IIRC, it was Seymour who designed the first generation (E10000) of that big Sun box... ;)
Daryl
03-22-2006, 06:14 PM
...we can have our DAWs and all samplers/plugins in one powerful system.

I mean the the SunFire E25k server scales up to 72 processors with 144 threads and up to 576 GB memory, and can have up to 72 integrated, high-bandwidth PCI slots. If the software was written for this system, it could theortically do it today. Imagine being able to load up 72 plugins - each having their own processor dedicated to them. And then having over 100x the ram available today to run your samples from!

Sure, I know a system like this costs a million bucks, and this is all just a completely unrealistic daydream. Then again, I remember upgrading my original pc memory from 64k to 128k for 400$ - now I can get a gig stick for under $50 (Order of magnitude = 1600 x 8 = 12800 times! - divide a million by that and it's not so much ;) ). So just maybe... one day in the distant or not too distant future?

*POOF* - - - regaining consciousness...
However Vista may get us a comparatively long way towards all that. Imagine how many sample libraries you could fit into 128GB memory...!

D
Von Richter
03-22-2006, 06:22 PM
However Vista may get us a comparatively long way towards all that. Imagine how many sample libraries you could fit into 128GB memory...!
D

I hope Vista actually gets rid of the ram cap, and hardware capable of housing that much memory becomes normal, and software starts to take advantage of it.
damoy
03-22-2006, 10:20 PM
Are you Daniel Moy?

Yes, it's me Frank :D
Doug Wellington
03-22-2006, 11:10 PM
Audio enhanced Linux inside, running GPOA...

WOW!!!Nah... My Mac has more horsepower than that thing...

But it sure would make a great stage prop! ;)
ohernie
03-23-2006, 04:24 AM
Nah... My Mac has more horsepower than that thing...

But it sure would make a great stage prop! ;)

OT but I'm curious if you know what Intel processor generation and speed had the same horsepower as the Cray 1.

Ernie
Mahal
03-23-2006, 05:37 AM
OT but I'm curious if you know what Intel processor generation and speed had the same horsepower as the Cray 1.

Look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOPS
jc5
03-23-2006, 03:02 PM
However Vista may get us a comparatively long way towards all that. Imagine how many sample libraries you could fit into 128GB memory...!

D

I think we'll see this... thankfully sample users are not the only ones who need vast amounts of ram. The entire 3d graphics industry also requires this to be able to run larger and more complex scenes more efficiently (or... at all!).

Soon hopefully... soon...... (can't wait to through the damned network out the windows.. awful pun intended....).
KingIdiot
03-23-2006, 04:07 PM
That would be great if everything worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, it doesn't. That's why I like having software incompatibilities spread out over multiple systems. That way, everything doesn't all crash at once. ;)

Lee Blaske


thats actually exactly what I was thinking... :)


plus imagine the cost of the upgrade path.....
Hermitage59
03-23-2006, 04:10 PM
thats actually exactly what I was thinking... :)


plus imagine the cost of the upgrade path.....

And you'd have to have a herd of monitors, just to get a decent BSOD!


:D