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RE: Cplay player for via C3 CPU?

Posted by Ryelands (A) on December 18, 2009 at 05:01:25

In Reply to: RE: Cplay player for via C3 CPU? posted by Dexter3D on December 17, 2009 at 13:23:42:

I think [mini ITX motherboards] are more compatible with Cics hardware philosophy than bigger systems.

You make a fair point. However, though the cMP^2 project can work well on a variety of platforms, reasons for choosing a small-format Gigabyte motherboard include:

* cMP^2 is optimised for Intel dual-core processors with one core dedicated to cPlay and the other to everything else. This reportedly makes it approximate an RT kernel.

* Most users prefer the Juli@ soundcard so the motherboard has to support the PCI bus;

* They also tend to opt for upsampling and the processor needs to be up to the task;

* There are audible benefits from using 45nm CPUs rather than older devices;

* cPlay is currently designed to use SSE (esp SSE4) instructions. Other processors are restricted to older versions of the program.

These constraints mean that suitable motherboards typically have more processing capability (and therefore consume more power) than the application needs. This can be addressed by lowering clock speeds and the like but that adds the need for an unusually flexible BIOS to the other restrictions.

Understandably, folk like to find a suitable motherboard, breathe a sigh of relief and get on with life.

Note that the frequent criticism of the cMP^2 project that it is no more than a shopping list of “tweaks” without rationale or understanding of pertinent hardware issues is at best mis-informed.

The key lies not in the usual non-contentious, industry-standard settings (disable this, switch off that) or even (arguably) in the bespoke player but in key documented changes to the OS. These include:

* A replacement (cMP) for Windows’ Explorer shell which is optimised for audio replay and by-passes unwanted but resource-hungry XP components;

* Settings in XP and cMP that take this further such as the “minlogon” tweak and the suspension of “svchost” and “isass” processes during music playing (where possible);

* Addressing Windows Extensions (AWE) - an efficient way of loading music data into RAM.

The difference these changes make to sound quality are repeatable and marked, at least on my kit (which, to be fair, is relatively modest).

Any evaluation of cPlay that has not prior properly implemented them is, despite the bluster that at times accompanies such evaluations, rather missing the point.

All that said, the above is not the only way to implement cMP^2.

Mine, e.g., uses a slow (1 GHz) Fit-PC2 with a USB DAC and no upsampling. As you suggest, in this case the “Intel Atom . . . is more than enough, and [it’s] heat/power consumption characteristics are superior”.

Heat/power consumption are not the only characteristics that are superior in this situation and very audibly so. I’ll not be reverting to a conventional motherboard in a hurry.

As my setup has features in common with yours (except for those pesky SSE instructions . . . ), might I suggest that you try implemeting cMP as per its web site (see link) but that you start by using your normal player instead of cPlay and see how it performs compared to in its more conventional setup?

Either way, it would be interesting to hear your results.

• http://cplay.sourceforge.net/   (Open in New Window)

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