Hi --
I'm completely new to BeagleBoard (just discovered it yesterday), but
I'm considering it for a dedicated sequencer project I am thinking of
doing. I like the BeagleBoard for all its built in usb and video,
etc. and am thinking of using it as the primary controller in a system
that would also include one of the more recent MidiBox implementations
(the one based around the STM32 Arm chip) for the extensive Midi
processing that my system would need to do, as well as one or more
dedicated DSP boards (something like the Blackfin from Analog Devices)
to handle audio processing.
So with these other components in the system the BeagleBoard would be
left to handle much of the main application code, all of the user
interface, as well as coordination of activities farmed out to these
other components. The user interface would be substantial, since I
want a ProTools or Sonar kind of capability with a virtual studio
board presented to the user mixed with something like Ableton Live to
support performance situations. And maintenance of the underlying
objects that support this would be significant as well.
I'm trying to figure out if the BeagleBoard is powerful enough for
this need and am also trying to get a better sense of how I might
interface these other components with it. The DSP board is going to
have DMA capability, so I'm thinking that the primary interface would
be through the BeagleBoard's DMA facilities. Does this make sense and
have others done similar things? I'm still working out what memory
transfer requirements woud be, but I know they will be challenging.
Also I would be wanting the BeagleBoard to handle things like disk and
file access.
Finally, I know there is a significant USB capability built in, but do
people ever interface with other types of systems, like SATA disks and
possibbly Firewire?
I'm just trying to get oriented and want to move on quickly if the
BeagleBoard is clearly not suited for such a dedicated but demanding
application.
Any guidance you experienced people could provide would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks.
Mike