Intel's HD Audio PC Sound Ambitions

Introduction, Continued

One of the possible applications allows an online gamer to talk to partners or opponents via audio chat while playing a game.

Another application that Intel illustrates in the above will delight PC-HT (Home Theater) fans: it will be possible to use a PC to send 5.1 sound-and-image video to your living room from a DVD on your PC, while you continue to work and listen to music in your office using the same PC.

Naturally, compatibility with the previous integrated audio platform (AC97) is assured. The ICH6 incorporates an AC97 controller and the use of HD Audio is not compulsory. It's possible that there will be PCs based on this platform that will be restricted to traditional audio.

As part of its basic features, HD Audio supports 32-bit sampling and sampling frequencies of up to 192 kHz with eight output channels, while the AC97 is limited to six channels, 20 bits and 96 kHz. This is what enables it to handle all the existing audio formats, including DVD-Audio at maximum definition. Of course, the actual capacities of the system will depend closely on the codecs adopted.