Thanks for your interest, Leif!

I wouldn't say that Vienna MIR "won't work" with the (pretty powerful) setup you describe. It's just that our tests have shown that the i7-generation of CPU's is the best choice right now, as these processors "talk" to RAM much faster than other designs - something that's crucial for the engine which the MIR-concept is based on.

In other  words: Most likely, you will be able to use Vienna MIR on your system, but you will encounter the limits of raw computing power much sooner than with an i7-based setup.

HTH,

 So, if the next year I will replace my old laptop with one using an Intel i7, will it work better than my Mac Pro?

Are there differences in required power between the downloadable MIR and the DVD MIR?

Sergino

@Another User said:

Are there differences in required power between the downloadable MIR and the DVD MIR?

This is a question I can't answer now, because the DVD-version of Vienna MIR isn't ready yet for real-world testing (... otherwise we would release it during the next few weeks, too! 😊 ...)

HTH,

 I meant to say: will an I7 laptop run better than my Mac Pro using Vista (not OSX)?

Sergino

Hi Dietz

@Dietz said:

 I can't give you serious estimations on how good an i7-based Mac will behave once Vienna MIR is ready for OSX (... or should I say OSX is ready for MIR ...? 8-] ...).

Can you explain this ?

Thanks

Cyril

Hi Dietz

Thanks for your answer.

You are waiting for Snow Leopard to release MIR and VI/VE 64 bit on Mac [:)]

Best

Cyril

Not really, Leopard supports 64-bit applications just fine. Snow Leopard will only bring more 64-bit userland apps with the OS, afaik.

How about the new AMD PhenomII for MIR. The processing power looks quite similiar to the i7s, therefore the price tag for a complete system is way cheaper.

see link below

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/amdunlock.hmx

sorry to say that, but the i7 is unbeatable ... and it is not only the processor, we need the fast memory bus too.

of course you might get *somewhere* with AMDs, XEON 5000, core2quads but i can't tell you currently _how_ far.

AFAIS those phenom boards hold 8 GB DDR2 - certainly not enough.

christian

Martin,

I'm confused....  If Leopard currently supports 64 bit application, then why isn't VI & VE for OS X 64 bit capable?  Also what are userland apps?

Hi Dietz,

Will I need to purchase an i7 based computer to run MIR or will it work fine on my MacPro 8-core with 16GB?  Also if so, will I be able to run MIR on the same machine as my sequencer (Logic 8 & Cubase 5) or will I need to make one a slave?  I'm trying to plan for the future in hardware requirements but do not want to over purchase if it is not necessary.  I would prefer to run everything on a single machine if possible but need to understand my options.  Appreciate your input......

 MIR will be available for windows vista and windows 7 in a first run (both have to be 64bit because of the amount of memory needed to be accessed), OS X might follow later.

so you could run windows via bootcamp on your MacPro and within windows MIR, but be aware the *old* intel 5000 XEONS have slow memory bus speed (at least compared to i7 processors)

if an audio host and MIR run simultaneously on the same machine will depend mainly on your soundcard drivers.

to step in regarding userland question: you probably know that GUI is not 64bit on leopard and VI/VE runs in  memory space for user's applications - this makes it a little bit complicated to access more than 4 GB memory with an application needing a user interface. however a solution is under development.

christian

Leopard does support 64-bit applications completely. The reason for VI/VE not being 64-bit yet (well, not released...), is that we have several other dependencies besides the OS itself. As should be relatively well known by now, Apple pulled alot of developers legs when they announced that the Carbon framework (gui parts) would not support 64-bit, having people move to Cocoa completely for future mac gui development.

A userland application would be anything you normally refer to as an "application", that runs outside the kernel.

Thanks for the clarification Martin. Am I correct is saying that if VE & VI were developed using Cocoa for the gui development that both VE & VI would be full blown 64 bit apps able to access all the memory that is available on the Intel 64 bit Mac?  The reason I am asking is that the the VSL web page states that 64 bit would be available "soon" and has stated that ever since the first release of Ensemble.  That's been over a year.  I wasn't sure if the VSL development team was waiting for Snow Leopard to be released or if VI and VE could be released as pure 64-bit apps now in the Leopard environment.  My personal biggest frustration with VSL is I'm just not being able to utilize the 16GB I have on board and don't really want to have to load Windows in order to do so.  Processor and sound card driver restraints just aren't present.  Are you guys close to releasing a 64 bit version of VI & VE?

Hi Christian,

From your response, it sound like running MIR on my existing MacPro which has the intel Xeon Processor using Bootcamp may not be a wise choice if I also plan on sequencing off the same machine.  Am I understanding you correctly to say that my MacPro would run MIR (full orchestra) via Bootcamp/Windows providing I use another computer to sequence with?  To say it differently, how many instruments would I be able to run in MIR using my existing MacPro and a different computer to sequence with?  Would I be able to sequence the entire orchestra or would I require multiple slaves? 

I don't know if I have the Intel 5000 series.  My computer stats show that I have a 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon.  Are we talking the same thing?

@Chuck Green said:

Hi Christian,

From your response, it sound like running MIR on my existing MacPro which has the intel Xeon Processor using Bootcamp may not be a wise choice if I also plan on sequencing off the same machine.  Am I understanding you correctly to say that my MacPro would run MIR (full orchestra) via Bootcamp/Windows providing I use another computer to sequence with?  To say it differently, how many instruments would I be able to run in MIR using my existing MacPro and a different computer to sequence with?  Would I be able to sequence the entire orchestra or would I require multiple slaves? 

I don't know if I have the Intel 5000 series.  My computer stats show that I have a 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon.  Are we talking the same thing?

Thanks DG...

Yes I have an older MacPro.   I knew I was vague when I said full orchestra but you understood what I was getting at.  The reason for my question (full orchestra) was that the video demo of VE showed two instances of VE on the slave and one on the main computer running a full orchestral arrangement.  I'm assuming due to the increase power of the i7 that the same arrangement used in the video would ALL run on a single slave within MIR.