undertone wrote:Sadly PCI is on its way out and like ISA, it'll be gone in a decade or less.
Of course - but that's no reason to stop current development of PCI/PCIe audio interfaces. Design for the hardware of today
I'm only suggesting that IF the Multiface/Digiface will be updated - it would be nice if the PCI/PCIe cards were backwards-compatible with current MF/DF boxes - and possibly with the addition of TotalmixFX DSP. I believe the FPGA currently lives inside the MF/DF box, but maybe there is a way to suppliment with additional DSP on the PCI/PCIe card HeadScratch
Lightpeak seems functional for some applications - but I think an electrical connection is beneficial if for nothing more than its convenient ability to provide power and data in a single cable. Lightpeak could get ratified to include an additional copper power feed when it leaps to 100GB/s - I'd be OK with that :-) Otherwise I think USB3 has long legs for personal peripherals for the next decade and beyond - and is 100% backwards compatible. USB3 might not be ideal for Audio - but I bet RME and other hacking geniuses will work it out (like RME did with USB2.0 only some 10 years after it was released - and it was thought to be completely useless for tons of low-latency I/O until the FFUC proved everyone wrong ).
Cheap MADI would be nice, too - but MADI is only like 15MB/s (125mpbs) max! Fine for general Audio (I love it!) but too expensive. I agree that we might as well future-proof out the ying-yang and use Lightpeak as a future MADI replacement, and get the benefit of mass-production pricing. I'd bet the per-unit licensing on Lightpeak would end up cheaper than ADAT - and the components will be cheap.
MADI's jitter spec is pretty awful as-is, so I doubt Lightpeak would be much worse rotfl
Lightpeak seems to be "payload agnostic" - so you can basically use the Tx/Rx system for whatever data protocol you wish (MADI 2.0!). Seems flexible for high-bandwidth requirements - those applications where USB3 won't suffice (USB3 will remain king on those personal gadgets that don't need more than 500MB/s or so - it should last a long long time for that task!)
Rock on
MADIface-XT+ARC / 3x HDSP MADI / ADI648
2x SSL Alphalink MADI AX
2x Multiface / 2x Digiface /2x ADI8