Axe 3, you say? TigerSHARCs are phased out without replacement, it seems

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While I'll be first in line to order an AxeFX 3 when one eventually shows up, I would like it's introduction to be because of a true quantum leap from the AxeFX 2, not simply to put the AxeFX on a different architecture. If it is on a different architecture, that's fine. I just would prefer that architecture switch to be a huge leap, like when we went from the 1st gen AxeFX to the II.
 
Strumzilla said:
I suppose it's slightly disconcerting since we don't know how this will eventually play out. I have to imagine that the fairly large user base would encourage a chip maker somewhere to produce a new line that they could market to all the various modeling and other audio application companies. Maybe I'm overestimating the numbers compared to the scale of demand for chips in general. (probably). I hope my Axe doesn't die anytime soon, although I have given serious thought to having an analog rig again, as just another (simpler) option and now it might also serve as a backup. My sincere hope is this discontinuation will spur development of a new technology or generation of audio chips and we'll get an AxeFx3. Which I will promptly purchase and never learn to fully utilize, just like the II.
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Good news is that Cliff and team have a great track record. Let's let them worry about this and PLAY MORE GUITAR. Best way to help them is to buy more Fractal gear to fund their R&D.
 
Strumzilla said:
I suppose it's slightly disconcerting since we don't know how this will eventually play out.
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You don't have to be concerned or disconcerted or even mildly non-plussed about this. There's enough chips on shelves to satisfy demand for some time to come. Fractal would keep surplus and so would the VAR they're ordering from and there are always more VARs. It's fairly normal for a semi-conductor manufacturer to stop production and have inventory live on for a decade or more. There will be supply chain commitments to all sorts of people who built products around the chips that need to be upheld.
 
All my flux capacitor parts come from Home depot.

I'm set.

flux_capacitor.jpg
 
One day all Axe FXII holders will have a priceless gem on their hands- which must be tightly guarded.
Wars could well result from the chaos when the last Tigersharc is consumed!
 
Tsunamijuan said:
Look at it this way, all you guys with Significant others, that lord over your spending allowances. You now have a legitimate argument for why you need additional Axe-FX's. Gotta have backup units after all.
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Sounds like an extremely useable argument !
 
GOOD. I dont want an axe 3, just keep what we have, It does all we need, with tweeks here and there!
 
Thankfully, I'm pretty sure it will be a while. There are plenty of potential advancements. For as much CPU power as it will take, a dedicated spillover will top many people's list. Yek has a nice list going.

Realistically, if anything new is coming anytime soon, an updated controller may just be first. Think about the Morningstar FX MC6, for instance. That seems to be a controller with practically no limits. That, and the MM GT series.

Then, maybe an "Ultra" version of the AX8.
 
iaresee said:
It's fairly normal for a semi-conductor manufacturer to stop production and have inventory live on for a decade or more. T
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Well, ADI claim they'll stop taking orders one year from now. This is a relatively low volume expensive chip, $600 worth or so for a single Axe FX. So hoarding a pile of them for one year's worth of production is millions of dollars to put in shelves. If someone does invest in such an inventory, they will try to recover this investment somehow, by raising the price. This is not to say that there won't be inventory available, but I'm not sure betting on it is such a safe strategy.
 
kgk said:
But the beautiful thing about that is that with another chip, both "amps" can run in parallel, with no extra latency!
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If you mean adding another chip with the same power, you have to explain to Cliff how to do that without adding latency, he said it wasn't the case.
 
vangrieg said:
Well, ADI claim they'll stop taking orders one year from now. This is a relatively low volume expensive chip, $600 worth or so for a single Axe FX. So hoarding a pile of them for one year's worth of production is millions of dollars to put in shelves. If someone does invest in such an inventory, they will try to recover this investment somehow, by raising the price. This is not to say that there won't be inventory available, but I'm not sure betting on it is such a safe strategy.
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It's incredibly common in the semi-conductor world to plan like this. Both AD and their VARs have inventory that will last beyond the date where fabrication ends.
 
So this is TI's competitor, eh? Looks like it's been around since at least 2012, which appears to be when that white-paper was published. I'm sure Cliff is well aware of this and chose the TigerSHARC over it. Back when I was in the EE world, AnalogDevices was the undisputed king of video and audio DSP.

WhiIe couldn't access the linked white-paper, here's a google cached version but it's way over my head. Interesting summary from the original document original:

Texas Instruments' new TMS320C6671 DSP brings fixed- and floating-point computational capability to the industry's fastest single-core DSP. This makes TI's C6671 a viable alternative for designs based on existing single-core floating-point DSPs in the industry, such as Analog Devices' (ADI) TigerSHARC processor family. This white paper examines how TI's C6671 DSP not only provides hardware features to implement system-level functions, but goes much further by providing multiple options for implementing additional functions that make it a significantly more powerful single-core DSP than ADI's ADSP-TS2012 TigerSHARC processor.
 
I'm not sure who the big distributors of the TI chip are, but here's a brief survey of availability:

Arrow Electronics: 11 in stock;
Rochester Electronics: 9 in stock;
Mouser: 3 in stock;
Chip1StoP: 11 in stock;
DigiKey: a whopping 42 in stock.


Hard to produce a product based on those numbers.
 
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