Re: new HW/SW trend?

["Dennis Leas" <dennis@mail.worldserver.com>]

> Several manufacturers announced products that consist of a hardware
> audio processing component and a software programming and performance
> interface.
> . . .

Quite interesting, Richard!

The HW/SW approach you describe is exactly the approach used by Symbolic
Sound with Kyma and (to a lesser extent) Eventide with their Orville.  I
only say "lesser extent" with the Orville since a computer is not required
(unlike the Kyma system).  Other manufacturers have used it as well, of
course.

In the past, this HW/SW approach has been deprecated by some in the 
industry
and certainly on the 'net.  The prediction was that with newer, faster,
bigger computers on your desktop or in your lap, you would not need
specialized hardware.

However, writing robust, real-time code is difficult.  Trying to write it
for a variety of OS's and platforms makes it even harder.  It's far easier
to split the task and write a "universal" user interface that operates
nearly the same on any computer and off-load the heavy-duty, time-critical
processing to a box with a OS that you have control over.

Another benefit is that the specialized HW acts as "copy protection."  The
software is basically useless without the manufacturer's HW box.  This 
helps
preserve the manufacturer's investment in product development and 
encourages
more development.

Dennis Leas
-------------------
dennis@mail.worldserver.com