Thanks for the valuable input and feedback aliev !
I have even a better idea of extending the Mediastation's CPU's power (to run VST and other kind of CPU intensive software).
Take a rackmount device with a standard PC in it (can be AMD Athlon, P4 or Opteron for screaming 64bit performance). No midi cards, non audio cards, only ethernet, and a hard drive thus it's very cheap.
Connect it to the Mediastation through the ethernet cable (can be either 100Mbit o 1Gbit).
This allows for real time streaming of audio/midi data between the Mediastation and with only a couple of msec of added latency thus undetectable in live performance.
Under Windows something similar exists, FX Teleport, made in Russia :-)

The price/performance ratio of this "VST/FX slave" would exceptional. For as low as $1000 you can probably get a dual athlon box with tons of CPU power.
We will keep all protocols and programming APIs open this means you can build your own CPU expander too if you wish.
Or if one box is not enough have a cluster of slave machines providing unlimited CPU power.
We are working on the same networking concept
in LinuxSampler (cluster of LinuxSampler boxes controlled by a VSTi/AudioUnit that runs under Windows/Mac), the same concept can be used to run VSTi plugs under VST server on Linux.
Let us first finish the Mediastation then we will work on extending its capabilities with the CPU expander like mentioned above.

As said open protocols, APIs and software will be very valuable to users on musical instruments too, but until yet noone has made this step. We will put an end to this situation

cheers,
Benno

http://www.linuxsampler.org



[This message has been edited by sbenno (edited 02-06-2004).]