Re: Infrasonic Quartet

[Pavel Hofman <pavel.hofman@ivitera.com>]

Pavel Hofman napsal(a):
> Vedran Miletić wrote:
>> 2008/11/13 Vedran Miletić <rivanvx@gmail.com>:
>>> 2008/11/12 Pavel Hofman <pavel.hofman@insite.cz>:
>>>> Vedran Miletić napsal(a):
>>>>> 2008/11/12 Pavel Hofman <pavel.hofman@insite.cz>:
>>>>>> Vedran Miletić wrote:
>>>>>>> Auzen started to distribute one cool new Envy24HT-S card, and it looks
>>>>>>> really interesting to me. Specs are awesome, and it also has word
>>>>>>> clock on card!
>>>>>>> http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/infra_quartet.php
>>>>>>> http://www.infra-sonic.com/site/p_PCI_quartet.php
>>>>>>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156007
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> According to envy24.svobodno.com, it has:
>>>>>>> Infrasonic Quartet      0x3030  0x4953
>>>>>>> Envy24HT-S - supported by ALSA
>>>>>>> AK4620B (ADC / DAC) - not sure, probably not supported?
>>>>>>> AK4112 - not sure either?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> However it has Xilinx on card in similar way as ESI Juli@ does, so
>>>>>>> it's probably not a standard Envy24HT-S card.
>>>>>>> Any ideas if this card could be supported?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> According to the block diagram in the User's Manual the Xilinx plays a
>>>>>> major
>>>>>> role. The FPGA provides even more functions than in Juli.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Without some information from the manufacturer (even if under NDA) the
>>>>>> driver will be rather difficult to write. The FPGA is controlled by
>>>>>> Envy's
>>>>>> GPIOs and their signals would have to be electrically analyzed under
>>>>>> Windows
>>>>>> driver - a pretty complicated task. It is very different from a regular
>>>>>> card
>>>>>> with well-documented codecs only where you just need to trace codec pins
>>>>>> to
>>>>>> corresponding GPIOs.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Pavel.
>>>>>>
>>>>> First off, thanks for answering. I didn't expect anyone to answer,
>>>>> since this card isn't this common yet, so it surprised me that it
>>>>> caught someone's interest. Good :)
>>>>>
>>>>> Well, IMHO, this card is as far as Envy24HT-S can go. Sure you can
>>>>> have more inputs/outputs, but at 4x4 and without breakout box that's
>>>>> it, in terms of features. So, I didn't expect the design to be simple
>>>>> at all. Not to mention unsupported DAC/ADC and DIT.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yet, assuming we get the specifications from Infrasonic/Auzen, would
>>>>> you or anyone else be interested in coding a driver?
>>>> Well, I could work on the driver, it would be similar to Juli. ice1724.c is
>>>> mostly ready for the proprietary clock model. The aforementioned chips have
>>>> complete documentation publicly available. If I had the card physically to
>>>> trace connection and test (I am no Takashi the wizard :) ) and some
>>>> documentation available, it should be viable.
>>>>
>>>> Honestly I am not going to purchase it myself, I have no other use for it
>>>> plus PCI is almost history now. Unfortunately I have not met any PCI-express
>>>> card with quality 44.1kHz playback (i.e. dedicated crystal clock).
>>>>
>>>> Pavel.
>>>>
>>> I do agree that PCI is almost history nowadays. Better said, it should
>>> be. However, I see no viable replacement for Envy24 cards on PCI-E.
>>> Oxygen and X-Fi just don't cut it. Anything else?
>>>
>>> Of course, when it comes to Envy on PCI-E there is Tokyo Style S010
>>> DCS-SEV24, however that card doesn't support ASIO and since it uses
>>> PCI <--> PCI-E bridge it's performance (in low latency operation) will
>>> probably suck. And also it's not aimed at producers, and it doesn't
>>> even support ASIO in Windows. I believe there are no MIDI ports
>>> either.
>>>
>>> Therefore, out of all those "new" Envy24-based cards (since that's
>>> basically what's available in this price range), Quartet stands out as
>>> basically the best producer-oriented solution out there. Even more
>>> than that - this is by far the best Envy24 card I have seen so far.
>>> Almost like there is nothing to add :-) It's not available where I
>>> live (Croatia), but it might be in the future since Auzen started to
>>> distribute it, that's why I was interested in possibility of ALSA
>>> driver for it appearing.
>>>
>>> Well, I will contact Infrasonic in the coming days and let you know
>>> how it went. Fingers crossed.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Vedran Miletić
>>>
>> I got a positive reply from Infrasonic, but haven't taken it further
>> since I lack coding skills in this regard. Anyone wants to?
>>
> 
> Well, I am awaiting our second child which will keep me a bit busy. If 
> the timing is not too tight, I think I could find some time to work on 
> the driver, provided the manufacturer lends me the card and provides 
> reasonable amount of information.
> 
> Pavel.
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OK, I will talk to the manufacturer and work on the driver. Thanks 
Vedran for arranging the contact.

Pavel.
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