[TUHS] Bell-Era UNIX Audio/DSP Interfaces?

[Serissa]


In the lost-in-time department, my group at Digital Cambridge Research lab in 1993 did an audio interface patterned after the X Window system.  Paper in the Summer USENIX: https://www.usenix.org/legacy/publications/library/proceedings/cinci93/gettys.html

For extra fun, the lab director of CRL at the time was Vic Vyssotsky.

But there must have been some Bell work, because around 1983 (?) when I was doing Etherphone at PARC I visited John DeTreville at Holmdel.  He was building a voice - over - Ethernet system as well.

-Larry

> On Jan 6, 2025, at 4:51 PM, Steffen Nurpmeso <steffen at sdaoden.eu> wrote:
> segaloco via TUHS wrote in
> <BWYwXjScYdFHM1NV0KEtgvazEfJM1PX7WaZ8lygZ45Bw2pEQG6JQr5OCtX-KMwEwr_k2zLD\
> GXac7wymRCtifnU9VKnlsrJCrKFqGZSgM6-0=@protonmail.com>:
> |The sound situation in the UNIX world to me has always felt particularly
> |fragmentary, with OSS offering some glimmer of hope but faltering under \
> |the long
> |shadow of ALSA, with a hodge podge of PCM and other low level interfaces
> |littered about other offerings.
> 
> Oh, but *how* great it was when FreeBSD came on over with those
> "virtual sound devices", in 4.7 or 4.9 i think it was.  Ie instead
> of one blocking device, one could open dev.1 and dev.2 and it was
> multiplexed in the kernel.  It did some format conversion in the
> kernel alongside this.
> 
> It was *fantastic*!, and i had a recording program sitting on
> a Cyrix 166+ and it took me ~1.5 percent of (single) CPU to record
> our then still great Hessenradio HR3 for long hours (Clubnight
> with worldwide known DJs, Chill with great sets in the Sunday
> mornings), and oh yes HR2 with the wonderful Mr. Paul Bartholomäi
> in "Notenschlüssel" (classical music), and the fantastic "Voyager"
> hour with Robert Lug on Sunday evening.  It cannot be any better.
> I could code and compile and there was no stuttering alongside.
> 1.5 percent of CPU, honestly!
> 
> I say this because FreeBSD has replaced that very code last year,
> if i recall correctly.  It now all scales dynmically, if i read
> the patches that flew by right.  (So it may be even better as of
> now, but by then, over twenty years ago, it blew my mind.  And the
> solution was so simple, you know.  The number of concurrent
> devices was a compile time constant if i recall correctly, four by
> default.)
> 
> I also say this because today i am lucky i can use ALSA on Linux,
> and apulse for the firefox i have to use (and do use, too
> .. i also browse the internet in such a monster, and at least in
> parts still like that).  I always hated those server solutions,
> where those masses of audio data flow through several context
> switches.  What for?  I never understood.  Someone convinced me to
> try that pulseaudio server, but i think it was about 20 percent of
> CPU for a simple stream, with a terrible GUI, and that on
> a i5-8250U CPU @ 1.60GHz with up to 3.4 Ghz (four core; the four
> HT are alwys disabled).  20 percent!!
> 
>  ...
> |Any recollections?[.]
> 
> Sorry, the above is totally apart, but for me the above is still
> such a tremendous thing that someone did; and for free.  Whoever
> it was (i actually never tried to check it, now that i track their
> git for so many years), *thank you*!
> (And that includes the simple usual format conversions in between
> those 22050/44100 etc etc.  Just like that -- open a device and
> read it, no thousands of callbacks, nothing.  And 1.5 percent CPU.
> Maybe it is not good/exact enough for studio level audio editing.
> But i still have lots of those recordings, except that the "Balkan
> piss box" chill somehow disappeared.  (Sorry Pedja, shall you read
> this.))
> 
> --steffen
> |
> |Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
> |der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
> |einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
> |(By Robert Gernhardt)
> |
> |In Fall and Winter, feel "The Dropbear Bard"s pint(er).
> |
> |The banded bear
> |without a care,
> |Banged on himself for e'er and e'er
> |
> |Farewell, dear collar bear
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