A Comparison of MIDI and ZIPI
Matthew Wright · Computer Music Journal · 1994
With computer networks, in contrast, any device connected to the network can send and receive packets to and from any other device connected to the network. (Tanenbaum [1989] provides an excellent introduction to computer networks.) In Ethernet, for example, each device has only one plug, and a single cable connects the computer to the entire network, allowing it to talk to any device. In this respect, ZIPI is more like a computer network than like MIDI. Each ZIPI device has only one ZIPI plug, and a single ZIPI cable connects it to a hub. Any device connected to a hub can send packets to any other device connected to that hub. If multiple hubs are connected with ZIPI cables, than any device connected to any hub can talk to any other device on any hub. This means that musicians will never have to rewire their ZIPI studios unless they add or remove devices. If you want to use your ZIPI synthesizer as a keyboard controller one day and as a timbre module the next day, no wiring has to change. You never have to worry about the number of ZIPI outputs your computer has because connecting your computer's one ZIPI port to the hub will allow the computer to control any number of ZIPI synthesizers. You never have to build complicated wiring structures with in/out/thru because you do not have to think about which data will flow through which wire. This also means that all ZIPI communication can be two-way instead of one-way. A ZIPI controller can ask questions of a ZIPI synthesizer (e.g., to find out its capabilities), and the synthesizer can respond by sending a message back to the controller (Loy 1985).