Author: Flash (cvx-sto-1-126.ppp.netlink.se)
Date: 08-10-2000 06:24
Hey, donīt be sorry; loving ATARI machines
is easy, cause they simply deserves it! :)
(and yes, Youīre right; intel SUX!)
But compareing ST:s to ibm-clones is maybe
a bit unfair, since those intel things need
plugin cards for everything, and those cards
can be replaced by better cards all the time.
An ST doesnīt have that possibility, it has
to do everything within the limitation of
the built-in hardware. No soundcard=>no DSP.
And the ST(E) only has 8-bit DA converters...
The CPU has nothing to do with playing MP3īs,
itīs all done by the DSP on the soundblaster.
The 386sx is a 16 bit machine without FPU,
similar to the ST, except that the ST has
a much better CPU in many ways. If you take
away the sound card, you can start comparing
those two machines. And if you could put the
soundblaster in your ST, maybe it would be
able to play (small) MP3īs, too.
An average MP3 is, say, 3.5 megabytes big,
and a ST has a maximum of 4Mb. If you want
to unpack the MP3 before playing it, you
must have lotsa space left on the harddrive,
because it can easily take up 25-50Mb!!
But that operation would take several hours
for a 8MHZ 68000, without FPU, to do.
So playing MP3īs has to be done in real-time,
and thereīs no CPU on earth able to DO that,
it requires a DSP, thatīs it.
Now, thereīs lots of small and somewhat cheap
pocket-style MP3-players, could buy one and
put it in the ST, that would do it ;)
I remember reading something about a CD-RW
with built-in MP3 coder/decoder, if it has
SCSI interface, and someone wrote the needed
software, it could be used with a ST.
Cheers
Flash
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