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Chapter 5 Input/Output Interfaces
5-28 Compaq Deskpro EXS and Workstation 300 Personal Computers
Featuring the Intel Pentium 4 Processor
First Edition – December 2000
5.8.2 AUDIO CONTROLLER
The Creative Technology, Ltd. Ensoniq ES1373 Audio Controller is a PCI device that includes the
following features:
♦ Compatible with software written for Sound Blaster 128
♦ 64-Voice wavetable synthesizer
♦ 4000+ sound library
♦ Tone control and speaker equalization
♦ Multiple sampling rate support up to 48 KHz
♦ OPL-FM and MPU-401 emulation support
♦ Supports Ensoniq’s 3D Positional Audio algorithm
♦ Aureal A3D API support
♦ Microsoft DirectSound, DirectSound 3D, DirectMusic support
♦ DOS game compatibility
♦ AC’97 Link Bus
♦ S/PDIF output
♦ ACPI power management
The ES1373 audio controller operates as a PCI bus master and slave device that includes an
integrated cache designed to handle the memory bandwidth requirements of audio processing.
System memory is accessed as required to keep output cache full (during playback) and input
cache (relatively) empty (during record) in accordance with the needs of the audio codec. The
integrated cache memory stores playback/record data, sample rate converter data, and control
register data. A virtual 3-channel DMA controller handles cache memory operations.
The control registers are accessed using programmed I/O on the PCI bus. All register reads are
done as long words, while register writes are performed in byte word or long word format.
In addition to the AC’97 link bus, the audio controller provides a Sony/Philips Digital Interface
(SPDIF) output that is applied to the tip connection of the headphone/line out jack. The SPDIF
signal format (also known as IEC-958) is a stereo digital signal specification becoming common to
consumer products.