Industry sources have chattered in Gearwire's ear about an impending release by Digidesign of an inheritor to the 002, Digi's top-selling mid-level Firewire rackmounted I/O. According to shadowy lurking figures in the know, the replacement has been named the 003.

What will the 003 look like? Looking at the competition at Presonus and Focusrite, it seems likely that the 003 will sport expanded I/O on the Firewire bus as with the implementations based on the Dice 2 Firewire chips found in competing units.

Then there's history to consider. One weakness of the 002 that we hope is addressed in the 003 is the power supply. A common complaint of 002Rack customers since '03, these wall-warts put a lot of sessions on hold while owners got on the phone to Digi to arrange replacements.

The 002's clock has also been a source of complaint, prompting owners to get better results by having the 002 take clock over S/PDIF from units such as the Apogee Rosetta. The 003 may or may not improve that situation.

One thing we can probably bet on is that the 003 will be in rack form, since the original 002 is more or less made irrelevant by Digi's Command 8 product.

Stay tuned to Gearwire for more on new Digi developments.