Hi, I want to thank you very much for your comprehensive response. I've written to the ess support e-mail pleading for more Linux support and got no response (no surprise there). Is there any way that we can start a petition or somehow force them to release the specs (even if needed under NDA agreement to a few persons such as yourself who would be capable of improving the driver)? Also, what are the chances for reverse-engineering the Windows drivers to build a better Linux driver?
Ivica Ico Bukvic > -----Original Message----- > From: Takashi Iwai [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2002 6:14 AM > To: Ivica Bukvic > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [Alsa-devel] Question regarding current ESS Maestro 3M > soundcard support > > Hi, > > At Mon, 11 Feb 2002 21:28:53 -0500, > Ivica Bukvic wrote: > > > > Hi all! > > > > I have an Dell Inspiron 8K and my question is whether the current > > Maestro M3 chip is fully supported or does it currently only furnish > > SB16 compatibility mode (I might be talking nonsense here, but this is > > what I heard a while ago, or something like it and my understanding is > > that the current driver support is only partial due to incomplete > > disclosure of the hw specs by the ESS, again, please correct me if I am > > wrong). Basically, from my understanding it seems that the M3 soundcard > > is being classified as a "sound accelerator" (whatever that means), and > > as such I would expect it to be capable of mixing audio streams in > > hardware (just as emu10k1 chip does, even though emu10k1 is much more > > powerful). So far, I was only able to get one stream out of the card in > > the latest ALSA driver, while I got 2 streams with the OSS-Free drivers > > (third stream would garble the two existing streams and return an i/o > > error). > > So it is on ALSA, too. > Theoretically more could be, but it seems that the (only one) DSP code > provided from ESS has a bug. > > > > So, is this the default behavior? > > Yes. > > > > I would assume that most of the modern-day cards should be capable of > > down-mixing at least 16 or 32 streams of sound, since that is what they > > are usually capable of reproducing in Windows at any given time (unless > > in Windows the down-mixing is done in software, which is certainly a > > possibility and in many cases a known fact). > > > > So, my questions are: > > > > Is this a hardware limitation? > > No. > > > or > > > > Is this current driver's limitation? > > Yes. > > > If the second is the case, then what are the chances of improving this > > issue in the nearby future? > > Only if we receive detailed information of DSP engine or better DSP > codes from ESS. > > > > Finally, what are the chances of getting the ESS to talk and give us the > > exact specs for this soundcard so that the driver can be finished? > > Unfortunately ESS is famous to provide the only minimum information, > so far. I hope this will change in future.. > > > ciao, > > Takashi _______________________________________________ Alsa-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-devel
