Intel SandyBridge... I don't get it.

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

On Thu, 27 Jan 2011, Lennart Sorensen wrote:

| Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:06:23 -0500
| From: Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>
| Reply-To: tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org
| To: tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org
| Subject: Re: [TLUG]: Intel SandyBridge... I don't get it.
| 
| On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 12:46:25PM -0500, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:

| >     + I want to stay with analog as long as I can because DRM prevents
| >       recording digital cable signals (the record-component-out hack is a
| >       little hacky, but I will try that; it requires a lot of Rogers STBs
| >       and whacky open-loop control of the tuner)
| 
| Open loop?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-loop_controller

The controller gets no feedback from the controllee so it doesn't know
for sure that its commands have had the desired effect.  IR remotes
are only open-loop because they assume that the human can monitor the
results and correct for failures.  An IR blaster cannot observe the TV
screen or set-top-box display to see if the commands were registered.

Is firewire control of the STB yield feedback to the controller?

Another question:

I bought a firewire controller just for controlling a couple of STBs.
The controller has one ordinary FW connector and two 9-pin connectors
ones for 800MHz firewire (I think).
http://www.dynexproducts.com/products/computers/DX-PCI2PF.html
I guess that I need a 9-Pin to old-fashioned FW converter or cable.

Is that correct?  Are such cables common?

| > So: how much better are 1156 systems than 775 systems (and Socket AM2+
| > systems) for my purpose?
| 
| Depends what you are doing.

TV stuff.

[I've just ordered DDR3 RAM, so I'm getting committed to this
project: nothing I currently have would accept DDR3 DIMMs.]

| > Will 5 SD streams swamp + whatever Myth is doing swamp the memory bus?
| > If so, 1156 would be much better.
| 
| Well if you use hardware mpeg2 compression cards, then I doubt it would
| be much load at all.

Yes.

| > Will anything need much CPU?  Since I've been living with an Athlon
| > 1700 XP, I think the CPU issue is minor.  I do hope to add a couple of
| > Hauppauge HD PVRs and I don't know what load that adds.
| 
| The HD PVR compresses to MPEG 4 in hardware, so the data isn't that much,
| although USB being extremely inefficient may take a decent chunk of CPU
| to handle.

Are USB3 ports (as on the socket 1156 I'm looking at, (when used as
USB 2 (for the Hauppauge HD PVR) likely to be less CPU intensive than
ordinary USB2 ports?

| Of course there are crazy solutions out there:
| http://www.magma.com/4slot.asp
| 
| Box with 4 PCI slots, attaches by cable to the host and uses one slot
| there (PCIe or PCI, your choice).  Too bad it is stupidly expensive
| ($1500).  It would be cheaper to build multiple backend machines with
| a couple of PCI cards each.
| 
| Another method is a PCI bridge riser like this one:
| http://www.orbitmicro.com/global/rc2-019-p-686.html
| Turns one PCI slot into 3 slots.  Add a PCI extender cable and you could
| actually use multiple.  How you mount the cards in the case is another
| interesting issue then.

A big honking motherboard looks to be cheaper.
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