[sc-dev] an SSE proposal (the Intel pool)

["Jonathan Saggau" <saggau@xxxxxxxxx>]

Revered developers:

I too will be *eventually* buying one of the Intel toys and would love to see an SSE version of SC running and... I too really have no idea how to do it or even how hard it would be.  I would also like to "put my money where my mouth is" and wonder if there are others who would like to do the same.  

Proposed:
Let's get a pool together and buy a developer(s) an Intel mini.

Possible method:
Have those who are registered as developers on the sourceforge project nominate / vote on a candidate (or candidates) to receive the "Intel pool" who might most benefit the furthering of the SSE implementation of SC and who is perhaps unlikely or unable to buy an Intel machine otherwise.  Once that candidate or ordered list of candidates is/are chosen (one registered developer, one vote?  one mailing-list member, one vote?), we the community can start sending donations to this developer.  There is a sourceforge mechanism for this.  Is it appropriate?  Once that developer has had enough money donated to buy an Intel mini, we move on to the next developer until we have an SSE version that works as well as the PPC version or until we can decide on another reason to create a monetary pool.  Perhaps those of us without the technical skills or time to implement features could continue to sponsor new features as a group.  Is there an ordered development roadmap that we could use?

Given that many of us are not technically capable to develop a full-featured / fully-optimized SSE version and that the few (?) developers who are so capable and/or have the time for this perhaps won't be willing or able to lay down the cash just yet for an Apple / Intel box, perhaps this is an interesting (and hopefully pretty cool!) route to support the development of the SuperCollider platform.  

I'll leave it up to the developers to decide if / how this kind of idea might be implemented fairly and to decide what "fully-featured / fully-optimized" means (perhaps even the PV ugens should be SSE... I dunno).  I'm happy to "run the election" or help out in whatever way I can.  I also hope that this suggestion doesn't seem unfair to the several (THANK YOU!) people who have *already* put a lot of blood, sweat, and code into this project.  It's my hope that we find somebody who fits the description in the previous sentence to receive this machine.  I also hope that having this suggestion come from a relatively new / unestablished member of the community doesn't offend.  That is not my intention.

My company will pledge the first 200 bucks.  That gets us a third of the way there for the base Intel mini model.  I'm assuming that's a proper machine for the job or is Core Duo more appropriate so that thread-optimization can happen as well?

Cheers,
Jonathan Saggau

-- 
The extent to which an individual can resist being blindly led by tradition is a good measure of his vitality.  - Harry Partch

There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them! - Richard P. Feynman