Greywolf <greywolf@starwolf.com> writes:
> <paranoia>
>
> I wouldn't be surprised if things were designed like this purposely
> just to prod people into buying digital-recording-blocking peripherals...
> [think Palladium]
>
> </paranoia>

It is damn hard to design a crammed motherboard with a quiet analog
area set off to the side.  There just isn't that much room near the
audio jacks.  Many codec chip makers will make no bones about the fact
that you can't possibly make anywhere near the chip's intrinsic noise
numbers if you mount the chip on the motherboard itself.

Besides, at this point it is pretty clear that the new motherboard
chips from Intel contain Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) under
the guise of "High Definition" audio.  I just wonder if it will be
possible to get the specs for using this DRM crap from an open source
product.  I have a sneaking suspicion that it is all "security through
obscurity" and there is no way they'll release any documentation.

> I have an onboard cmpci (as well as a S3SV waiting in the wings), and I
> have zero complaints, other than the fact that I wonder why they can't
> design audio with tunable outbound harmonics (so I can up the evens and
> get a warmer sound...).

You really want the chips to do this?  Wouldn't it be easier to just
preprocess the audio stream with the real CPU?  At this point in time
real cpu's are much better number crunchers than DSP's.

-wolfgang
-- 
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht                http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/
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