[wdmaudiodev] Re: Pull mode versus push mode
- From: "Jeff Pages" <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <wdmaudiodev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:36:51 +1100
Thanks David for your comments and suggestions.
>Even if using push mode, wouldn't the timer interrupt be running
>for each streaming device? Doesn't the timer interrupt act just
>like a hardware interrupt with regard to the CPU state?
From my understanding, the system timer is a single piece of hardware shared
by all the audio engine instances, so in push mode there's only one actual
hardware interrupt per polling interval regardless of how many instances
there are.
>Having written drivers for radio station automation systems in
>the past, having any glitches in the audio would be a problem for
>station running 24/7. Pull mode does give a more 'hardwired'
>connection between the hardware position and the software
>streaming engine. It just makes me 'feel better' to know that
>the hardware is controlling the position instead of the
>software guessing.
Our cards are radio receivers, principally used for broadcast logging, not
as on-air program source. In any case, though, in push mode it's still the
hardware determining the stream position through its position registers, the
only difference is that the registers are polled asynchronously to the audio
stream. The benefit of pull mode is that it allows smaller buffers to be
used, giving lower latency, but that isn't a requirement here. Provided the
buffers are big enough in push mode to allow for the asynchronous timing,
there shouldn't be glitches, and we haven't had any glitch problems in
systems running on Vista (push mode only).
>Is ASIO an option? That would give a single hardware interrupt
>at the bufferSwitch point for all the channels and bypasses
>everything Microsoft so you don't have to worry about a system
>sound from an error dialog box interrupting the on-air audio.
>No worrying about something in the streaming engine resampling
>the audio or having to worry about the two extra limiters
>that are put into the audio stream whether you want them or not.
>Exclusive mode fixes most of that... :-) OK, I admit that I am
>an ASIO evangelist.
With one exception, we only provide the hardware, with our customers
choosing whatever recording software they want to use, so unless all that
software was ASIO compatible, it wouldn't be a solution. Also, in the case
of the DAB+ card, the number of stations can vary dynamically as services
are added or removed, and I'm not sure if ASIO would handle that.
Jeff
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