[AG-TECH] CPU load in ratmedia with Linux OSS drivers

[Andrew Daviel]

FYI

I have checked around TRIUMF for soundcards.
We have chips by C-Media, Creative Labs, Ensoniq, ESS, Intel, nVidia and
VIA - a total of 29 different types/revisions, using 11 different
drivers. Most of these are OSS from the stock RedHat installation, with a
few Alsa from FC3 or that I've just upgraded by hand. The most common
units are Ensoniq 1371, Intel i810  and C-Media CM8738

Of those that I've checked, Creative Labs "sb" and
"audigy" show reasonable CPU load using the OSS driver.

The cmpci, es1371 and i810_audio show near 100% CPU load for ratmedia in
system state with the OSS driver, and probably block the AG VenueClient
on single-CPU systems.

I have built Alsa drivers for the systems we use for AG, but
maintainability is a problem.

Note that rat works with OSS, it's just that it consumes CPU. This
doesn't seem to be a particular problem with applications such as Mozilla
or Sun java used in VRVS, but it gums up the venue client.



-- 
Andrew Daviel, TRIUMF, Canada
Tel. +1 (604) 222-7376  (Pacific Time)
security at triumf.ca