-<dt>Video interface\r
-</dt>\r
-<dd>Poorly engineered video interfaces (and/or their device drivers) can "steal" computer resources for a long time, preventing the audio interface from keeping up with the flow of data</dd>\r
-<dt>Wireless interface\r
-</dt>\r
-<dd>Poorly engineered wireless networking interfaces (and/or their device drivers) can also block the audio interface from keeping up with the flow of data</dd>\r
-<dt>USB ports\r
-</dt>\r
-<dd>If you are using an audio interface connected via USB, and sometimes even if you are not, the precise configuration of your system's USB ports can make a big difference. There are many cases where plugging the interface into one port will work, but using different USB port results in much worse performance. This has been seen even on Apple systems.</dd>\r
-<dt>CPU speed control\r
-</dt>\r
-<dd>Handling audio with low latency requires that your processor keeps running at its best performance (speed) at all times. Many portable systems try to regulate processor speed in order to save power - for low latency audio, you want this totally disabled, either in the BIOS or at the OS level</dd>\r
-<dt>Excessive Interrupt Sharing</dt>\r
-<dd>If your audio interface is forced by your computer to share an "interrupt line" (basically a way to tell the CPU that something needs its attention) with too many, or the wrong, other devices, this can also prevent the audio interface from keeping up with the flow of data. In laptops it is generally impossible to do anything about this. In many desktop systems, it is possible at the BIOS level to reassign interrupts to workaround the problem.</dd>\r
-<dt>System Management Interrupts (SMIs)\r
-</dt>\r
-<dd>SMIs are interrupts sent by the motherboard to tell the computer about the state of various hardware. They cannot be (safely) disabled, but they can also take a (relatively) long time to process. It is better to have a motherboard which never sends SMIs at all - this is also a requirement for realtime stock trading systems, which have similar issues with latency.</dd>\r
-<dt>Excessive (bass) vibration\r
-</dt>\r
-<dd>This doesn't affect the flow of data to/from the audio interface, but it can cause the flow of data to/from your disk storage to become <em>much</em> slower. If you are going to use a computer in an environment with live sound, make sure to place it so that the disk is not subject to noticeable bass vibration. What actually happens is that the vibrations cause the mechanism inside the disk to detect read errors, and this forces a retry of the reading from the disk itself. Retrying over and over massively reduces the rate at which data can be read from the disk. Avoid this.</dd>\r
+ <dt>Video interface</dt>\r
+ <dd>Poorly engineered video interfaces (and/or their device drivers) can\r
+ "steal" computer resources for a long time, preventing the audio interface\r
+ from keeping up with the flow of data</dd>\r
+ <dt>Wireless interface</dt>\r
+ <dd>Poorly engineered wireless networking interfaces (and/or their device\r
+ drivers) can also block the audio interface from keeping up with the flow\r
+ of data</dd>\r
+ <dt><abbr title="Universal Serial Bus">USB</abbr> ports</dt>\r
+ <dd>If you are using an audio interface connected via USB, and sometimes\r
+ even if you are not, the precise configuration of your system's USB ports\r
+ can make a big difference. There are many cases where plugging the \r
+ interface into one port will work, but using different USB port results\r
+ in much worse performance. This has been seen even on Apple systems.\r
+ </dd>\r
+ <dt>Internal USB Hubs</dt>\r
+ <dd>Ideally, you'd like your USB ports to all connect directly to the\r
+ main bus inside the computer. Some laptops (and possibly some\r
+ desktop systems) come wired with an internal USB hub between the\r
+ ports and the system bus, which can then cause problems for various\r
+ kinds of external USB devices, including some models of audio\r
+ interfaces. It is very difficult to discover whether this is true or\r
+ not, without simplying trying it out.</dd>\r
+ <dt><abbr title="Central Processing Unit">CPU</abbr> speed control</dt>\r
+ <dd>Handling audio with low latency requires that your processor keeps\r
+ running at its highest speed at all times. Many portable systems try to\r
+ regulate processor speed in order to save power — for low latency\r
+ audio, you want this totally disabled, either in the BIOS or at the OS\r
+ level.</dd>\r
+ <dt>Excessive Interrupt Sharing</dt>\r
+ <dd>If your audio interface is forced by your computer to share an\r
+ interrupt line (basically a way to tell the CPU that something needs\r
+ its attention) with too many, or the wrong, other devices, this can also\r
+ prevent the audio interface from keeping up with the flow of data. In\r
+ laptops it is generally impossible to do anything about this. In many\r
+ desktop systems, it is possible at the BIOS level to reassign interrupts\r
+ to work around the problem.</dd>\r
+ <dt><abbr title="System Management Interrupt">SMI</abbr>s</dt>\r
+ <dd>SMIs are interrupts sent by the motherboard to tell the computer\r
+ about the state of various hardware. They cannot safely be disabled,\r
+ but they can also take a relatively long time to process. It is better\r
+ to have a motherboard which never sends SMIs at all — this is\r
+ also a requirement for realtime stock trading systems, which have\r
+ similar issues with latency.</dd>\r
+ <dt>Hyperthreading</dt>\r
+ <dd>This technology is becoming less common as actual multi-core CPUs\r
+ become the norm, but it still exists and is generally not good for\r
+ realtime performance. Sometimes you can disable this in the BIOS,\r
+ sometimes you cannot. A processor that uses hyperthreading will be\r
+ less stable in very low latency situations than one without.</dd>\r
+ <dt>Excessive vibration</dt>\r
+ <dd>This doesn't affect the flow of data to/from the audio interface,\r
+ but it can cause the flow of data to/from your disk storage to become\r
+ <em>much</em> slower. If you are going to use a computer in an\r
+ environment with loud live sound (specifically, high bass volume),\r
+ make sure to place it so that the disk is not subject to noticeable\r
+ vibration. The vibrations will physically displace the head-write\r
+ heads of disk, and the resulting errors will force a retry of the\r
+ reading from the disk. Retrying over and over massively reduces the\r
+ rate at which data can be read from the disk. Avoid this.</dd>\r