[geeks] MP3s on ARM chips

[nimitz at ns1.nimitzbrood.com]

> On Tue, Oct 14, 2003 at 11:37:51AM -0500, nimitz at ns1.nimitzbrood.com wrote:
> 
> > Bah.  We don't need no stinking proprietary stuff.  We just need
> > someone good at base-level coding.  Here's what I was talking about
> > before: 
> 
> I believe the second link I posted wasn't proprietary.  However, if I
> was mistaken, there are other options like MAD
> (http://www.underbit.com/products/mad/).

I apologize - I misread the part about the binary only license for Realmedia on the one page.

>  
> > http://members.aol.com/xanathus/mpegdec/about.htm
> 
> That looks pretty proprietary to me.  I fail to see source code.

I was referring to the fact that it was tight enough to use on smaller lighter boxen.  My brain seems to be slower than my fingers today.

> > This thing works on almost any old Mac I have regardless of speed.
> > Think the developer would be interested in doing a port? 
> 
> I would imagine the developer would have better things to do with his
> time that to port assembly code to an incompatible platform that already
> has several good, fast enough MP3 players.  Granted, if you have an ARM7
> running at 30mhz, things will be tight, but more likely you have a
> faster chip running at a faster clock rate.  Specifically, in the case
> of the Webpal that started all this talk, an ARM9 (I believe) running at
> 80mhz.

Still, tighter code in this case would give better results.  And if it plays acceptably at 30mhz then it should be quite stable at 80mhz.  And he definitely wrote it without the need for an MPU.

> However, that link does make me start to wonder about the chances of
> getting him to port it to a Sun 3/80 might be...

I still want to make my Microvax II the world's oldest MP3 player.  Still need better power in my house to run it though.

Mike Hebel