Improved threading mgmt in PT12 (THE difference vs. PT11?)

[Wall2Wall]

Originally Posted by beatlogik

My limited testing since the PT12HD install has indeed confirmed that video is much more responsive in 10HD than 12HD. I skipped 11 so I cannot speak to this degree. I do primarily post-sound for features and have dual boot drives, one with 10 and one with 12, same computer and OSX version.

In 10HD playback begins approximately .4 seconds after play. In 12HD it can take up to 2 seconds to start. Same film, same session. Improved threading mgmt aside, the video engine still awaits a proper overhaul...

Most on 11 couldn't even get video to play. 12 is an improvement

[txshonk]

Does this thread lead me to believe PT12 might better balance the load across my cores than PT11 does?

[maunaloa]

Based on my experience, yes. That 100% thread in the .jpg is going to throw error codes. No "headroom", so to speak.
It would be very helpful if you could run the same session on a PT12 rig and snapshot the same point in time.

[roberts]

Originally Posted by txshonk

Does this thread lead me to believe PT12 might better balance the load across my cores than PT11 does?

only on a Mac …

[txshonk]

Originally Posted by maunaloa

Based on my experience, yes. That 100% thread in the .jpg is going to throw error codes. No "headroom", so to speak.
It would be very helpful if you could run the same session on a PT12 rig and snapshot the same point in time.

That suddenly makes PT12 tempting.

With how thing were looking with PT12 I figured Id wait until December to get my subscription so I didn't lose my HD upgrades. Id love to see someone from Avid chime in that this is actually an improvement they deployed. If they did Id upgrade sooner.

Dave

[Sugarnutz]

Originally Posted by maunaloa

You're right... I meant retro-compatibility with Core/Accel cards. I corrected my post.

The explanation I keep hearing is 64 bit vs. 32 bit, but the Core & Accel cards are PCI-X cards which PCI-X is 64 bit capable. Don't know if Digidesign implemented that capability in the cards though as I don't have a PCI-X machine handy to stick 'em in to see if they're actually running in 64 bit mode.

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by Sugarnutz

The explanation I keep hearing is 64 bit vs. 32 bit, but the Core & Accel cards are PCI-X cards which PCI-X is 64 bit capable. Don't know if Digidesign implemented that capability in the cards though as I don't have a PCI-X machine handy to stick 'em in to see if they're actually running in 64 bit mode.

Has nothing to do with the pci-x slot

It's the fact that the motorolla chip that were used to make the HD core and accel card were no longer in production (and not 64 bit capable) and Avid could not get more stocks from them. They had to start looking for more powerful chips that would allow them to move forward with their plans for Pro tools, hence the new plugin format (that enables a certain hybridicity and also going to 64 bit without having to create a bridge) and the HDX cards .

[TOM@METRO]

Originally Posted by Emcha_audio

Has nothing to do with the pci-x slot

It's the fact that the motorolla chip that were used to make the HD core and accel card were no longer in production (and not 64 bit capable) and Avid could not get more stocks from them. They had to start looking for more powerful chips that would allow them to move forward with their plans for Pro tools, hence the new plugin format (that enables a certain hybridicity and also going to 64 bit without having to create a bridge) and the HDX cards .

Hybridicity... I love that word.

[Emcha_audio]

Thought someone would!

[Darryl Ramm]

Even more fundamental/incompatible is signal processing and mixer computability with modern host based 32/64 bit float processing. In this day it just makes no sense for a vendor to investing in building new products that use fixed point processing.

The "chip availability story has always sounded like a little overplayed marketing spin to me. I suspect Avid just did not want to tell it's customers that fixed point DSP is plain just a very bad idea today, given how much it had marketed it was a good idea in the past.

Digidesign HD boards were based on the Motorola 56000 family 24/48 bit fixed point DSPs. Freescale 56000 family DSPs, including variants of the 56321 used on HD boards are still available. Had Avid been nuts and wanted to continue manufacturing 56k based DSP boards I suspect they could have found a way, it may or may not have required lots of board/design/software rework (I have not bothered to look at the details). But the increasing power of host based processing and the availability of floating point DSP processors sure made needing to get off fixed point DSP a priority. And sure the writing is on the wall for the long term availability of 56k family processors.

32-bit or 64-bit OS and application compatibility does not have a simple relationship to the memory addressing support of the DSP itself. The Motorola 56000 family can't even support 32 bit addresses, let alone 64 bit, but that is a non-issue. That stuff is handled by glue hardware around the DSPs and the device driver on the host. And had Avid wanted to it would have been possible to build a 64-bit capable version of Pro Tools that talked to existing HD DSP boards. It's just software, it can do whatever it wants But any work on those boards, driver, Pro Tools etc. is just pouring resources into dead technology that is long past it's day... From a technology viewpoint, not from an end-user viewpoint, if you have HD/TDM cards today and they are working for you that is great... but technology companies have to invest to move forwards not tread water. And cleaning out old legacy code and compatibility requirements probalby helped simply the development of Pro Tools 11 and get it to market easier/faster. At some point you just have to cut backwards compatibility and move forwards. But to current HD owners Avid really does need to clarify what ongoing support it will provide with Pro Tools 10. There are still empty promises kicking around in DUC about Pro Tools 10 bug fixes.