High Definition Audio: Myths and Facts
About high definition audio a year or two ago, only lazy people were not talking. Now that the noise has subsided, the process continues as usual. The buyer often does not even suspect that the surprise, the motherboard, was thrown into the load of the new computer.
Intel® High Definition Audio Technology, as envisioned by its creators, should replace the aging architecture of AC-97 computer sound. The latter has become widespread on all types of platforms, including mobile solutions, but sooner or later you will be forced to abandon the race. In fact, the aging of the AC-97 is still not that noticeable. The “veteran” AC-97 can be retained for quite some time, thanks to all the revisions and updates, although the stock of “extensions” is already depleted. The main advantage of the innovative technology promoted by Intel (hereinafter abbreviated as HD Audio) is 32-bit (7.1) multi-channel sound with a sample rate of up to 192 kHz. For specialists, this advantage is very doubtful, but it has a hypnotic effect on people. Therefore, it is time to find out if it is worth taking into account the “novelty” (which has been on sale for a year) when choosing a computer.
HD audio has other benefits as well. For example, support for 16 microphones. This is the microphone grill, which separates the voice from the surrounding noise, which (not without nifty algorithms) helps to recognize continuous speech. It is more of a foundation for a bright corporate future than the realities of modern life. The old AC-97 standard was ready to handle 2 mono microphones (one stereo), but in practice manufacturers were limited to a single mono input, apparently due to a lack of massive demand. Don’t be too quick to use a bunch of microphones and new HD audio devices. So on laptops running Sonoma, potentially supporting HD audio, I’ve personally never known about stereo inputs.
The AC-97’s weakest point was the controllers, which were developed by third-party manufacturers on the principle of “who in what is what”. HD Audio promises to be served by out-of-the-box drivers for the operating system (from MicroSoft of course), but in fact, it will be extremely difficult to limit yourself to system drivers for a device as complex as an audio card (whether you are integrated or not). In either case, additional drivers from the same third-party manufacturers will be required.
As it turned out, the AC-97’s plug’n’play ease of installation was only partially realized. HD Audio is committed to bringing this “to mind”. Recommendable! But it is hard to believe.
What is truly revolutionary about HD Audio is its multithreading support with dynamic allocation of DMA (memory) channels for each stream separately. In other words, it is possible to simultaneously play several sources and with different sample rates (for example, play a movie with Dolby Digital 5.1 and, at the same time, not forget about monophonic voice chat).
