[ltp] MWave-Linux-Petition

[Paul Rubin]

I'd really prefer to sign a separate petition to get rid of the mwave
instead of inflicting it on linux.  The "great wheel of karma" theory
is very cute but in reality, as processors get cheaper, it's proven
effective to use more and more of them rather than putting more
functions in software.  A modern Thinkpad probably has at least 10
processors (besides the main cpu, the keyboard controller has its own
processor, the battery pack has one, the disk and cd-rom drives each
have at least one, etc.).  There are also things like the serial
UART's which perform functions that in the old days might have been
done by software.  They are practically cpu's in their own right and I
think they may actually be implemented that way.  It would be
ridiculous to hair up the Linux kernel with those functions in the
name of some abstract notion of technical elegance.  Don't overlook
the motives of some of the advocates of using the main cpu for
these things (i.e. Intel Native Signal Processing initiative).
It's financially great for Intel if you use a $500 Pentium-VII 
to run that DSL modem in software, but it's simply more cost effective
and bug resistant to use a $5 embedded DSP.