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In Reply to: Excellent points Tony posted by Sordidman on October 13, 2014 at 09:19:11:
The users of a squeezebox think of it as a streamer. Those modifying it or integrating it into a network think of it as an embedded system. Here the functions of a computer transport have been divided into two boxes, the squeezebox and the NAS. The NAS (which can be a general purpose PC or an embedded system) stores the files, but it also provides library functions.
Another way to partition into multiple boxes is the approach Miksa has taken with HQPlayer and the Networked Audio Adapater. The player does all the functions required except the actual transport functions of starting and stopping playback and timing the signals sent to the DAC. The networked audio adapter gets a "stream" from the player and times it and sends it on to the DAC. This allows a very low powered device to be located in the audio stack, and isolating the audio stack from ugly noise created by possibly extensive DSP being done in the computer, acoustic noise, etc...
By the way, technically, neither the squeeze box nor the networked audio adapter are really "streamers" because they work on a "pull" basis, requesting blocks of audio as required. This is even true when playing many Internet services which are customized to particular users. Internet radio is a true stream because as a broadcast service it continues at its own pace, regardless of what the listeners are doing. This type of true stream is also needed for interactive voice and video.
To make a concrete discussion, a year ago I got a Raspberry Pi, which consisted of a circuit board, a micro SC card, a small wall wart power supply, a pillbox sized plastic case and some cables. This was not yet a personal computer because it lacked a human interface. However, it came with a two USB ports and an HDMI port. I connected one of the USB ports to a USB keyboard and the HDMI port to my TV set. Now I had a "complete" computer. However, I soon moved the Raspberry Pi to a different room and connected it to my network via its Ethernet connector. This enabled me to log into the command line prompt of the Linux operating system, using my main computer's keyboard and display and the SSH protocol. This enabled me to do software development on this machine to act as an embedded system. Now this device sits on my network running some equipment and I can control and monitor this equipment using a web browser on any of my personal computers. Now the same hardware is obviously an "embedded system" and not a personal computer.
If this sounds confusing, it's because the subject is complicated and difficult for me to explain simply.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
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Follow Ups
- RE: Excellent points Tony - Tony Lauck 10/13/1410:08:51 10/13/14 (0)
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