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FAQ: DL1608 Autopsy

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Kevin:

--- Quote from: WK154 on April 18, 2013, 03:42:55 AM ---The screwdriver is ready for an autopsy.

--- End quote ---
If you tear down the DL, please post some pics. I'd be curious to see what's inside - particularly what type of DSP and what its clocked at, whether the DL has a co-processor for comm handling or whether that's handled by the DSP, size of Flash memory, what type of A/D and D/A converters, routing to the 32 pin interface, etc. Knowing more about what's inside will give us all a better idea of what's possible to due with future firmware changes vs what's going to take hardware changes.

Given that the DL has only been out for about 6 months, hardware production changes are usually more difficult and expensive to make compared to firmware changes, and the competition is breathing down Mackie's neck, it seems to me that the only way Mackie will recoup their investment in the DL is if they keep working to improve the firmware over the next several years. Just how much room there is to do that is TBD.

WK154:
Before I disembowel the Dl1608 let me guess about it's innards from what scraps were feed to us by Mackie. We know that there is a single DSP and that there are two communications ports. One is a Ethernet port and the other is the Apple 30pin connection. There is no Ethernet input to the 30pin connector but there is a USB port and plenty of single chip Ethernet to USB solutions. The 30pin has a USB port leaving me with the conclusion that the common communications protocol is USB or a customized Mackie variant. When asked BenO avoided a clear answer (Mackie special sauce). There has also existed an audio protocol spec for USB that deals with all kinds of audio devises including mixers and it existed long before the DL1608 was designed. The logic for the most part would be handled by a general purpose CPU such as a ARM unit and the DSP would be relegated to signal processing which it was designed for. There are of course other possibilities such as Xmos's solutions. Apple's iPad gives me the other clue since Mackie would not be able to write a low level driver for some other communications method for the iPad iOS. Apple paranoia to the rescue. If anything they would have enhanced mixer specific functionality by adding to the USB standard like Behringer did to OCS. It all makes sense to built on other peoples technology especially if its free. Case in point the iPad as a control surface. Well, enough speculation so lets dissect the DL. I will try to follow the signal chain as much as possible. Camera, Screwdriver, Magnifying glass to the ready!! This was written BS (Before Screwdriver).
Pic of main board:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vly1hfnu0m4ulht/Dl1608%20Mobo.JPG

Well I wasn't far off but the Shark DSP (400Mhz) really surprised me (Behringers main DSP huuu...mmmmm!!) and for the ARM CPU we have a Blackfin also from Analog Devices running a real-time Linux OS courtesy of AD . I haven't gotten to the connector area for the Onyx preamps and may not (no real interest) but the support on the main board is loaded with 4580's. A yes the infamous Mackie 3M cables, lots (7) of them to fail. The Flash memory is 32MB which is the limit for Firmware (actually 16MW x 16)and ram is 16x16MW. The A/D is Cirrius Logic and the D/A is AKM. The Ethernet controller is a plain vanilla 10/100. No USB converter here. Needs further head-scratching. The 30 pin connector is feed by two cables one with 5 lines the other 6. Haven't traced it yet.
For those that are into light reading here are the key chip links:

Shark 21488 data sheet.
http://www.analog.com/static/imported-files/data_sheets/ADSP-21483_21486_21487_21488_21489.pdf
Blackfin BF516 data sheet
http://www.analog.com/static/imported-files/data_sheets/ADSP-BF512_BF512F_BF514_BF514F_BF516_BF516F_BF518_BF518F.pdf
AKM 4396 D/A
http://www.akm.com/akm/en/file/datasheet/AK4396VF.pdf
Cirrius Logic CS5368 A/D
http://www.cirrus.com/en/pubs/proDatasheet/CS5368_F4.pdf
Flash rom
http://www.spansion.com/Support/Datasheets/S29GL-P_00.pdf
 Enough for now. Speculate away!

RoadRanger:
What does the 30 pin to board stuff look like? is it on a daughterboard or just bare wires? Any speculation as to how easy it is going to be for Mackie to interface the present main board to a lightning connector dock?

WK154:
It's a little paddle board with two cable connectors no problem to replace but it will no doubt require the IC's from the N adapter (stands for Nasty lockout connector). The lines used if not available on N may be a problem. Haven't chased the signal lines down.

RoadRanger:

--- Quote from: WK154 on April 21, 2013, 04:42:33 PM ---It's a little paddle board with two cable connectors no problem to replace but it will no doubt require the IC's from the N adapter (stands for Nasty lockout connector). The lines used if not available on N may be a problem. Haven't chased the signal lines down.

--- End quote ---
If Mackie can procure the chip used in the Apple lightning adapter it sounds like it will be no problem for them to make a new paddle board with the lightning connector on it :) .

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