NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/comp/sys/atari/st/tech/4643

Internet Message Format | 1992-08-31 | 2.1 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!usc!chaph.usc.edu!news
From: [e-mail] (Juxtaposer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: Re: DSP in the Falcon
Date: 31 Aug 1992 23:04:12 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 38
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>    For anyone who hasn't seen the latest AEO, the Falcon appears to
>have been design as a 24 bit computer, partly to maintain compatability
>with existing software. This doesn't mean third party boards etc can't
>extent that, but it explains the 14 meg memory limit.]

    Yucck!  It sure does.  What a nasty way to cripple a machine.  Is it
so darned expensive to not run 2 more address lines and give you a reasonable
64MB limit (like anyone is touching that yet, but it leaves room for
expansion).  Sigh.  I know, I know - since it (26) isn't a nice multiple
of 8, you have to add a slew of logic chips...but how about 28?:)

> The other captures
>from Jim Allen posts to GEnie say that the Falcon chips all seem to talk
>at 16mhz. Another poster mentioned here that there's an 8bit processor to
>dsp channel, I guess for uploading code into the dsp, though I don't
>know if that means you can't tell the dsp to load a program from a memory
>location itself, which would be faster, I'd guess.
>    Motorola says the top speed the 56001 is clocked at is 33mhz, so the
>ad/da converters must be the parts clocked at 50mhz.

    Whups!  Looks like you slip an order (or so) of magnitude.  The only
thing on the Falcon rated to go 50 anything, is the sound can be sampled/played
at 50_K_Hz.  The chip itself has been said to run at 32MHz.  AD/DA are not
likely to be clocked in the MHz range.  You could broadcast your own FM station
if they were (well, maybe AM) :).

    Of course, with its 96k of its own memory, the DSP could probably out
perform the CPU (special mathmatical permutation logic aside). :)

>
>--
>[e-mail]
>

-Mike