Some of that is inevitable when you move lots of data in and out. Workstation and server chipsets [vs. desktop chipsets] try to soften the blow with additional buses and multiple CPUs so that the latency stays within the requirements of the job at hand even under heavy loads.

But the whole thing is even more complicated than that in audio because there are a lot of different kind of heavy loads: when you do tracking and you want to use software effects you are looking for minimal latency for a path like "AD-in-app-plugin-app-out-DA" through your gear and your computer and back into some musicians headphones. There are buffers being passed and chunks of code activated throughout all this and it takes time every time.

That scenario is totally different from let's say recording 24 tracks of 192/32 audio non-stop and uninterrupted for two hours.

But one thing is true in both cases: if the CPU doesn't get around to servicing your data stream in time you are going to get "snap crackkkle pop" instead of music.

would heavy firewire traffic be affected by use of pci bandwidth by say ethernet or other devices like graphics cards?

I'm curious if high cpu, network, graphics card processing would result in artifacts caused by limitations of firewire bandwidth to the cpu.

Once a firewire port/card is created for the Aurora, will that be all that is needed to connect it to the pc and control it?

Yes - Control and record/play will all go over IEEE-1394.

The aurora mixer software will control the aurora functions via firewire? Sorry if these are questions are too "basic".

Yes.

Don't know the pricing yet.  If I had to guess (my crystal ball has a crack in it, looking for a new one on eBay), I would say our IEEE-1394 card would be similar in price to our competitors converters Firewire add on card.

Once a firewire port/card is created for the Aurora, will that be all that is needed to connect it to the pc and control it?

The aurora mixer software will control the aurora functions via firewire? Sorry if these are questions are too "basic".

The all important question, what would one guess is the price range of these expansion cards?  $100? $200? more?  Clearly this is important in determining buying another lynx card versus an expansion card if all you need is 8 channels.

In that case: I really wish for firewire products from Lynx.

Hi Swiharta,

Unfortunately we cannot discuss new product developments. However, customer suggestions and wishes are considered when new products are developed.

Best Regards,