Veteran audio simulator ASTi DACS passed this week following a prolonged life cycle at the age of 13 (which we all know is almost 198 in computer years).

Caregivers report the DACS succumbed to Acute Component Shortage after years of repeated component transplants and advanced software resuscitation.

Mourned across the globe by the 3000 plus customers that enjoyed his faithful service, he was shipped to his final resting place in one of the largest send-offs in recent memory. The wake was attended by a large crowd including close associates of the DACS: Dot Matrix, Fiven Onequarter Floppy, Hayes MODEM, and ISA Bus.

Though the DACS' wife, Mrs. Model Builder, unfortunately passed at the same time, their many progeny—the simulation models—have embraced a new life by joining the jet-setting ACE family by virtue of the new MB Model Translator.

Also in attendance were representatives of The Fraternal Order of the DIS, where the DACS had connections across the globe, and the HLA Lodge.

Rev. Molly presided over a closed-box service in the shipping department chapel as the DACS lay in an elegant enclosure of black cardboard and foam with shipping label and tape highlights. The shipping label was decorated with a colorful fall of Ethernet patch cords with hand-held terminal and RIU accents.

The service was accompanied by a selection of the DACS' favorite audio tracks including a medley of "Jet Engine Spooling Up", "Tires Screech in the Rain", and long-time favorite "ATIS Recites: Washington National Information Kilo".

Pallbearers in period uniforms of flannel shirts, cargo pants, and Doc Martens boots attended the DACS to the doors of the UPS truck for the ride to its final resting place.

A sterling and committed competitor, the DACS was somewhat lonely in the last decade of his life as the majority of other competitors died or retired after very brief, rather inglorious life spans. Never noted as the "flash and dash", the DACS was most renowned for being a solid, reliable competitor who always managed to rise to the most difficult challenges while others flamed out as the bar was raised.

DACS is survived by several successful children including: Telestra 3/MBV, Telestra 4/ACE, and PC'ver.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests well wishers send purchase orders to ASTi, who continue the DACS legacy of better audio simulation.

The above web article treats the demise of the DACS light-heartedly, but in all sincerity it is with a heavy heart—and only after major efforts at resuscitation—that we reluctantly conclude that the platform is no longer sustainable. In total, through its various instantiations, the DACS enjoyed a life-span of nearly 15 years (yes, that is a bit like saying, "The road-sweepers broom lasted 20 years; he only replaced the handle four times and the head seven times"). But we can think of no other platform that the manufacturer supported, maintained, and evolved along an affordable continuum to meet the latest state-of-the-art requirements for a fraction of that life-span. Can you? If so, we'd like to hear about it!

Now for those customers who are concerned with whether the Telestra 4/ACE product family will be obsolete in a few years, we can reassure you that we fully intend for it to be around for a long time, a really long time.

• ASTi has a very substantial investment in the development of the Gigabit Ethernet-like synchronous ACENet audio distribution, which allows us to incorporate platform-to-platform transfer latencies of less than 5 milliseconds. We anticipate that the bandwidth is more than adequate for all near-term applications, and the system should be upgradeable to even higher capacities in the future as technology evolves.
• The ASTi OS has met all of our design goals in providing a rock-solid, real-time performance.
• The migration to RHEL, while not without issues, now allows us to be part of the mainstream for all future security developments.
• The dual-core Telestra 4 is already providing higher model-processing capability than the triple 80 MHz DSP DACS, even though it has a base 48KHz sample rate (which represents eight times the load).
• In selecting the hardware, we utilized low-churn industrial components, as we did with the DACS, including a motherboard-chassis combination, which carries a production life commitment of at least seven years.
• The ACE-RIU was designed with component life and supplier availability into account. The manufacturers of the critical components are well established, and meet the latest ROHS compliance.
• We are in the process of obtaining CE certification for the system, which in itself is a large investment and an indication of how stable we regard the configuration.

In summary, we are very satisfied with all aspects of the Telestra 4 ACE system, and except for ongoing incremental evolutionary enhancements, we intend to standardize on this platform for the foreseeable future. We can see no reason why it shouldn't enjoy a total life span comparable to that of the DACS.