<s>
The	O
IRCAM	B-General_Concept
Signal	I-General_Concept
Processing	I-General_Concept
Workstation	I-General_Concept
(	O
ISPW	B-General_Concept
)	O
was	O
a	O
hardware	O
DSP	B-Architecture
platform	O
developed	O
by	O
IRCAM	O
and	O
the	O
Ariel	O
Corporation	O
in	O
the	O
late	O
1980s	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
French	O
,	O
the	O
ISPW	B-General_Concept
is	O
referred	O
to	O
as	O
the	O
SIM	O
(	O
Station	O
d'informatique	O
musicale	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Eric	O
Lindemann	O
was	O
the	O
principal	O
designer	O
of	O
the	O
ISPW	B-General_Concept
hardware	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
manager	O
of	O
the	O
overall	O
hardware/software	O
effort	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
consisted	O
of	O
up	O
to	O
three	O
customized	O
DSP	B-Architecture
boards	O
that	O
could	O
be	O
plugged	O
into	O
the	O
expansion	O
bus	B-General_Concept
on	O
a	O
NeXT	O
Computer	O
(	O
a	O
"	O
cube	O
"	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
ISPW	B-General_Concept
could	O
then	O
run	O
a	O
customized	O
real-time	O
audio	O
processing	O
server	B-Application
on	O
the	O
hardware	O
boards	O
controlled	O
by	O
a	O
client	B-Protocol
application	I-Protocol
on	O
the	O
NeXT	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Each	O
ISPW	B-General_Concept
card	O
had	O
two	O
Intel	B-General_Concept
i860	I-General_Concept
microprocessors	O
(	O
running	O
at	O
80	O
MFLOPS	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
three-board	O
ISPW	B-General_Concept
provided	O
what	O
was	O
at	O
the	O
time	O
unsurpassed	O
signal	O
processing	O
and	O
audio	O
synthesis	O
power	O
on	O
a	O
single	O
workstation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
single	O
ISPW	B-General_Concept
card	O
cost	O
approximately	O
$	O
12,000	O
US	O
(	O
not	O
including	O
the	O
computer	O
)	O
,	O
which	O
made	O
it	O
prohibitively	O
expensive	O
outside	O
of	O
research	O
institutes	O
and	O
universities	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
main	O
server	B-Application
software	I-Application
developed	O
by	O
IRCAM	O
for	O
the	O
ISPW	B-General_Concept
was	O
called	O
FTS	O
(	O
"	O
Faster	O
Than	O
Sound	O
"	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
main	O
NeXT	O
client	B-Protocol
application	I-Protocol
was	O
a	O
graphical	O
program	O
called	O
Max	B-Application
,	O
developed	O
by	O
Miller	O
Puckette	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
commercial	O
version	O
of	O
Max	B-Application
(	O
without	O
the	O
FTS	O
server	B-Application
)	O
was	O
licensed	O
by	O
IRCAM	O
to	O
Opcode	O
Systems	O
(	O
and	O
,	O
later	O
,	O
Cycling	O
'	O
74	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Max/FTS	O
eventually	O
migrated	O
to	O
a	O
software-only	O
application	O
for	O
SGI	O
and	O
DEC	O
Alpha	O
computers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
See	O
also	O
Pd	B-Language
.	O
</s>
