Crystal Integrated Pci Audio - HP Vectra VEi7 Technical Reference Manual

Core Components and Technologies

Crystal Integrated PCI Audio

Crystal Integrated PCI Audio
®
The Crystal integrated PCI audio solution in the PC is a two-chip
solution made up of the CrystalClear
and the CrystalClear CS4297 Audio Codec '97. The audio controller
interfaces with the PCI bus and performs all digital operations such as
sample rate conversions and synthesis. The CS4297 chip mixes and
processes all the analog signals. A typical signal-to-noise ratio is 95 dB,
compared with 85 dB at best for ISA audio solutions.
High fidelity audio is achieved through features such as differential CD
audio input, which cancels out PC activity noise. In addition, the
system's converters use a highly efficient over-sampling scheme to
perform 18 bit analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion.
Through its use of DirectX, this Crystal audio solution offers high-end
audio features such as 3-D localization, surround sound, room effects
and Doppler effect.
The Crystal PCI audio solution includes an integrated FM synthesizer,
Plug-and-Play interface and power management features. There is an
internal connection for CD-ROM and DVD drives, and external stereo
in, stereo out and microphone in sockets. Crystal audio is not
SoundBlaster compatible.
The Crystal audio solution has been optimized for Windows-based
platforms, while supporting the other major operating systems. It is
therefore fully compatible with any application written for a Windows
environment. Moreover, it is possible to play back virtually any PC
audio format using Microsoft's Media Player 6. This player can process
new formats through the use of plug-ins and can decode the following
formats by default:
File Formats
Midi files (music synthesis)
MOD tracker files (enhanced music playback)
30
™
CS4280 PCI audio controller
File Extension
.rmi
.mid
.mod