On Fri, 20 Jun 2003, Andy Sy wrote: .. > with sound. Once that happens, an offboard sound chip operating > independently of the CPU brings nothing to the table anymore. > Actually, even with today's non realtime kernels, that is virtually the > case already!!
That, I doubt. Your scenario already plays out every day in main boards with a "DAC" sound card -- these are the ones which use the CPU for everything. Aureal was way ahead of its time with their realtime soundwave raytracing system. Having tried turning on environmental audio on a software-only sound card, I can say that in games, doing this sort of thing does result in a meaningful CPU hit. The reason why sound applications aren't demanding CPU the way graphics applications are, is because people haven't figured out how to leverage this technology yet. Not to mention it's an added cost for game developers. But even the moribund and old Vortex2 AU8830 could do something like 8 sound sources in a room, with reflection, occlusion, and different materials (e.g. carpet, hard steel..) It's going to go the way of where video is now, but adoption is much slower. --- Orlando Andico <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mosaic Communications, Inc. -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
