SOME OF ARDISTECH'S PROJECTS

A 19 inch, 5 HE industrial PC-based computer for the international market with Linux as operating system, a Gui based on the graphical library system of Qt and software for playing, recording and editing of audio and editing

500.000 lines of C/C++ code were written and maintained in CVS. Apart from standard PCI cards, two PCI application specific PCI cards were developed. Additionally an analogue and digital data acquisition and control system for Multichannel audio was made. Finally, test software and procedures were developed and function tests performed. Both operational and service manual were also written as part of this project.

A remote control (Human Machine Interface (HMI)) with dedicated functionality for audio editing and recording

Making a software prototype or emulation environment first, is good practise when developing a HMI. Also a preliminary manual based on end-user requirements helps to configure button layout and screen functionality. ArdisTech designed the HMI and did the software and electronics development.

The remote control has a printed circuit board (PCB) with 8051 micro controller, switches, leds, a digital fader for data entry, a transport control PCB, a single board computer (SBC) from Advantech and a rotary encoder PCB, connected to the PC104 bus of the single board computer.

Software was made for the functionality of the HMI using Linux and Qt. The application and Linux and Xwindows/Qt were downsized and then installed on a 48 Mbytes compact flash card of the SBC. A fast ethernet connection takes care of the communications with the main system.

Because fans and other moving parts were absent the remote could be used for data entry and control in an environment where background noise is undesireable. The controller also acts as a normal X-server.

An audio recorder/editor with proprietary hard- and software

The machine consists of 8 proprietary ASICS for signal processing functions such as audio scrubbing, FIR-filtering, level manipulations and Multichannel DMA. The ASICS also has interfaces for SCSI, MIDI and SMPTE. A CPU, RAM, AD and DA converters, AES/EBU transceivers and other standard electronics completes the system. The CPU is of the Motorola 680x0 type. Also all software is proprietary. The second generation of this product uses FPGA's from Xilinx and Lattice in addition to 56001 signal processors from Motorola.

Housing, metal screening, CE/EMC approval, technical and operational manual developments, were also done within the scope of this project.

A fibrechannel RAID storage system with ready-made hardware components(COTS) and IDE drives was developed

The Fibrechannel SCSI target software driver was written. Tests were performed using a PCI fibrechannel card from LSI Logic.

Software development further concentrated on optimising data throughput. A Qlogic fibrechannel PCI card was used for intiator in the test setup.

The software for the Web based content management system is written in Java and can operate with most databases systems. ArdisTech calculated the cost involved when expanding the system with modules for data security, access authorisation, billing and program scheduling.

Developing an iSCSI (SCSI over IP)storage system

The iSCSI target software driver was written. The first tests of the protocol are performed using standard fast ethernet cards. Final tests will be done using Gigabit ethernet cards with sufficient bandwidth to handle streaming audio and video in professional applications.

Evaluation of case tools

To this day, case tools are preferably used for documentation purposes only. However, usage can be far more advanced. When changes are made during a project these changes need to be incorporated in the original design also when team members already started coding. When proper feedback between coding engineers and the design is missing complications may arise. Under pressure one tends to overlook this so called roundtrip engineering. An important advantage of a computer is, that software changes can be made without spending time administrating these changes.

ArdisTech researched which case tool(s) are suitable for roundtrip and reverse engineering in a coding environment for C++ in technical software development.

Mechatronical input devices

Software drivers, DSP algorithms, electronics and mechanical parts for two input devices - a jog wheel with an optical rotary encoder and a film handle with magneto-resistive sensitivity- were developed. These devices can be used to control playback speed and direction of audio and video.

Revisions suggested for a jukebox with design flaws

The customer distributes jukeboxes, using magneto-optical drives and disks for storage. Design faults in the jukebox, led to a high rate of failure during insertion and removal of the optical cartridges. Investigations were carried out and design changes were suggested for implementation in a new version of the jukebox.

A SACD recorder with CRC

SACD (super audio CD) is a new digital audio encoding/decoding technology for a new type of CD's. A Multichannel SACD recorders was developed. Signals were recorded on magneto-optical disks to assure the highest possible data security. Also special CRC-based software was designed and written.

Ports and installations

Several Linux ports and installations have been done.

Development of a double sided DSP PCI card and the appropriate DSP driver software

This project consisted of the development of:

1. Control software,
2. DSP algorithms with software and
3. The appropriate hardware to do signal processing in professional audio.

Both software and DSP code were written in C and C++ with some sections in assembly.

HTML/XML based user interface

The requirement was to develop an operating system independent graphical user interface. ArdisTech used HTML/XML in combination with a webserver, browser and database as the optimum solution.