Musical Sound Memory Access Controller with Dual Buffer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing musical sound signal generation systems face delays in data supply due to synchronized interruptions from sound channels with different sawtooth wave periods, leading to inadequate data transmission from hard disks, especially for channels with shorter periods.
Innovation Solution
An access controller system that includes a control section, buffer memories, and transmitting sections to manage wave data transmission between a slower hard disk and a faster semiconductor memory, optimizing data transfer by detecting and prioritizing sound channels for data block transmission based on completion times, ensuring timely data delivery to the waveform memory.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If wave data are read from hard disk in units of blocks to waveform memory for musical sound signal generation, then data transmission is performed, but delays occur due to synchronized interruptions from sound channels with different sawtooth wave periods, leading to inadequate data supply especially for channels with shorter periods
Solution Approach 1:
The invention introduces a buffer memory that stores wave data blocks in advance before they are needed by the waveform memory. The buffer memory receives data blocks from the hard disk and holds them until the waveform memory is ready to accept them, thereby eliminating delays caused by synchronized interruptions and ensuring continuous data supply to all sound channels including those with shorter periods.
2Loss of time
If a buffer memory is introduced to store wave data blocks, then data transmission delays are reduced, but the system complexity increases due to additional memory components and control logic
Solution Approach 1:
The buffer memory serves as an intermediary component between the hard disk and the waveform memory. It mediates the data transfer process by receiving data blocks from the hard disk and supplying them to the waveform memory at appropriate times, thereby reducing data supply delays without requiring complex real-time control logic. The buffer memory simplifies the overall system control by decoupling the data reading process from the data consumption process.
Data Source
AI summary
In an access controller provided for a musical sound signal generating system, a signal generating section operates when a readout of wave data of one block stored in a working memory is completed in a sound channel, for supplying a next waveform request signal to a CPU, which requests a next block of the wave data for the sound channel. First and second buffer memories are connected between a recording medium and the working memory respectively through first and second buses which are independent from each other. A first transmitting section operates when receiving block specifying information from the CPU, which specifies a block to be read next from the recording medium, for transmitting the wave data of the specified block to either of the first or second buffer memory while reading the specified block of the wave data from the recording medium. A second transmitting section operates when the transmitting of the wave data to either of the first or second buffer memory is finished and during a period when the musical sound signal generation system is not accessing the working memory, for transmitting the wave data of the specified block to the working memory from either of the first or second buffer memory, to which the wave data of the specified block has been transmitted by the first transmitting section.