[PD] Raspberry Pi : DSP on the GPU ? (WAS : Message from the boss of Raspberry Pi Foundation !)

chris clepper cgclepper at gmail.com
Sat Feb 9 17:30:26 CET 2013


GPUs are not made for very low latency processing of tiny chunks of data.
 Trying to run the GPU at 5k to 100k FPS on 256 bytes of data is not going
to work well at all.  Processing a few seconds of audio at once would show
massive gains though.

Just ask yourself - how many professional DAWs use the GPU to process their
audio?  Even the one sold by the company with full access to every part of
the GPUs they put in their own computers?

Also, I don't get the obsession with the Pi.  There are now lots and lots
of under $100 ARMv7 dual core (!) boards that run Linux and have way more
I/O options.  Why not get something not totally out of date to begin with?

On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 7:51 AM, Pierre Massat <pimassat at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi again Katja,
>
> I just read through it. Couldn't find anything about having the GPU
> process some audio. It's really mostly about why it's a bad (or good) thing
> to keep the GPU closed-source (at least that's what I understand [?]).
>
> So I guess there isn't must we can do on our own to access the GPU. But
> then, what can Eben and his team do about it ? I'd like to know what answer
> we can give him. If he says "just waiting for an application like this" I
> am assuming that it must have aroused his interest somehow. And I believe
> that it would be great if people in the Pd community got involved. All I
> can provide is some testing, but others could contribute more (if i'm not
> mistaken, Miller Puckette did a great job fixing the analog out for
> instance). I think we should try and play a part in the development of the
> Pi. And if we're lucky we'll finally have that Pd box people have been
> dreaming about for years.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Pierre.
>
> 2013/2/9 katja <katjavetter at gmail.com>
>
>> Hi Pierre,
>>
>> There has been intensive discussion about GPU processing on RPI:
>>
>> http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=6188
>>
>> Did you read it? In the light of this discussion, I wonder what Eben
>> means when writing "We have a bunch of GPU compute available on the device
>> just waiting for an application like this."
>>
>> Anyway it's great they have put your project on RPi blog. You will be
>> famous, Pi Massat! Congrats again.
>>
>> Katja
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 10:51 AM, Pierre Massat <pimassat at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>> Please read below the message I received from Eben Upton, the boss of
>>> Raspberry Pi foundation.
>>> It looks like he was impressed by the video I made, and he says that
>>> there's a possibility of letting the GPU do some DSP computation.
>>> I guess you'll all agree that this is awesome news.
>>>
>>> I have no idea how we can proceed now. I think i'm absolutely incapable
>>> of doing anything useful in this field, so i told him that i would transfer
>>> this message to you, hoping that Miller, HC, Katja (and others) would know
>>> what needs to be done. We should probably ask him if you guys could work
>>> directly with their developers.
>>>
>>> Let me know what you think.
>>>
>>> Cheers!
>>>
>>> Pierre.
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: Eben Upton <eben at raspberrypi.org>
>>> Date: 2013/2/8
>>> Subject: Re: RPi as multi-effects for guitar
>>> To: Pierre Massat <pimassat at gmail.com>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi Pierre
>>> Awesome stuff - I think Liz is preparing a blog post about this as we
>>> speak. I'd be very interested in knowing a bit more about the DSP code
>>> that runs this stuff. We have a bunch of GPU compute available on the
>>> device just waiting for an application like this.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>> Eben
>>>
>>> On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 2:29 AM, Pierre Massat <pimassat at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> > Hi,
>>> >
>>> > I write a blog about how to make guitar effects with computers running
>>> Pure
>>> > Data in real-time.
>>> > When I first heard about the Raspberry Pi I thought it would be great
>>> if I
>>> > could use it for the same purpose. It would only be much cheaper, and
>>> much
>>> > smaller than my current laptop, and could fit in my hand-made stompbox.
>>> > Recent improvements in Raspbian have finally made this possible, and
>>> this
>>> > makes me very happy !
>>> > The Raspberry Pi is now actually capable of running rather demanding
>>> Pure
>>> > Data patches in (quasi-) real-time (at least with a latency that's low
>>> > enough to play live with it).
>>> > I quickly assembled a small patch to test it and make a video to
>>> demonstrate
>>> > that it actually works very well.
>>> >
>>> > It is obviously not the use the RPi was originally intended for, but
>>> to me
>>> > (and I'm sure to other musicians as well), this sounds like a
>>> revolution.
>>> >
>>> > I'm currently documenting my setup on my blog :
>>> > - video :
>>> >
>>> http://guitarextended.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/real-time-guitar-effects-with-raspberry-pi-pd-and-arduino/
>>> > - blog post about hardware :
>>> >
>>> http://guitarextended.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/raspberry-pi-multi-effects-overview-of-the-setup/
>>> >
>>> > There's no trick, the Pi really IS doing all the DSP work. A reader
>>> posted a
>>> > comment to ask where the computer was :)
>>> >
>>> > I take this opportunity to thank the RPi foundation for all the good
>>> work
>>> > you put in this amazing tiny thing. I see that the cam should be out
>>> in a
>>> > few months, this is all very exciting. I'm sure the Pi has already
>>> changed
>>> > the life of a lot of people !
>>> >
>>> > Cheers,
>>> >
>>> > Pierre.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>>
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>>
>
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