T+A new flagship streaming dsd1024 dac

[Superdad]

1 hour ago, jabbr said:

 

Arguably any DAC which accepts firmware is a "computer" and DAC in the same enclosure, or even on the same chip for that matter. Typically the USB interface and conversion to I2S/DSD involves some type of FSM/processing. It turns out that essentially all more than trivial FPGA implementions need some soft of processor called a "soft core". Building a SoC such as the Xilinx zynq places an FPGA and ARM cores in the same die ... the RF SoC even includes a few ADC/DAC modules intended to implement SDR (software defined radio) ... but with the FPGA, implementing the Ethernet interface becomes easy because you can load an Ethernet IP module (ie PHY) and the chip itself can interface directly to an SFP module. I have no idea how T+A specifally does this, and Intel also has its own similar chips but that is a straightforward and flexible approach. 

 

Merging also implements this approach, AFAIK, with their "ZMAN" board "Z" for "Zynq"  

 

Enabling NAA is as simple as loading a deb package onto the custom Linux.

Indeed the lines blur quickly these days. Consider for example Schiit Audio’s recent adoption of Microchip’s PIC32MZ EF microcontroller for their Unison USB input board. Those chips have a lots of built-in I/O (including Ethernet, USB, ADC, and even some graphics) and a good deal of memory. Microchip provides its own development environment (MPLAB), but I read about someone loading Linux into a PIC32.

[Superdad]

6 minutes ago, vortecjr said:

Exa has a proprietary multi channel driver for Linux for some unique reason particular to their USB interface.

 

That’s because exaSound’s USB input runs in Bulk Mode.