[PD] PD & hardware

[Daniel Hug]

Hello list,

I worked w/MAX already and now I'm evaluating PD for a interactive
installation. The system will play multiple soundfiles over 8 outputs
simultaneously. The sample playback is modified real-time by the properties
of sound that is recorded over microphones on 8 other channels (possibly
fft?). The mapping of in and out is partially dynamic.

My questions are:
does PD work with other HW than hammerfall (win or linux)?
Can I use DSP cards with PD?
And witch OS is generally recommended (not to hack PD, but to have a
easy-to-handle and efficient system for a short time project)?
How's the overall performance with multiple simultaneous in and outs/sound
analysis/realtime sample playback, especially compared to MAX on an apple?

Many thanks for your help! I really hope to be able to use PD as a
opensource sound solution.

daniel