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Is AC97 modem controller really a modem????
All modern PC motherboards have an on-board modem controller in their
specification. However, all those motherboards have just a modem audio connector. I cannot find any RJ-?? style phone jacks. Does it have really a modem? AC97 modem always goes with a AC97 audio. All those motherboards have three stereo audio jacks with something like i810 audio or Cirrus audio. Then what is meant by AC97 audio? Is it separate from i810 for example? Thanks. Hugh |
#2
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On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 15:02:53 +0000, ghsong wrote:
All modern PC motherboards have an on-board modem controller in their specification. However, all those motherboards have just a modem audio connector. I cannot find any RJ-?? style phone jacks. Does it have really a modem? Nope. You need an add-in card, typically using one of those funky little CNR or AMR slots. The add-in cards are dirt-cheap, though these days a PCI software modem is also dirt-cheap. This sort of thing can be built right into the motherboard, but there just isn't much in the way of demand for this except with laptops. AC97 modem always goes with a AC97 audio. All those motherboards have three stereo audio jacks with something like i810 audio or Cirrus audio. Then what is meant by AC97 audio? Is it separate from i810 for example? Intel's i810 chipset was, to the best of my knowledge, the first chipset to support AC97 audio. By virtue of being the first, the two are occasionally used somewhat interchangeably, though AC97 is definitely the correct term here. As for the Cirrus audio, that could be either related or another can of worms altogether. See, AC97 audio, like the modem above, is not a complete solution all on it's own. It needs an extra chip, a codec (coder/decoder) in order to take the digital signal from the AC97 controller and convert it to an analog signal (and the reverse for recording sound). These codec chips for sound are typically soldered on the motherboard, somewhere near the back and then the analog front end is connected to the three audio jacks you see at the back. The modem portion of AC97 also needs a codec, but as mentioned above, this is typically not included on desktop motherboards. So where does Cirrus fit into this? Well Cirrus is one of many companies that produces AC97 compatible codec chips. Analog Devices and Realtek are the two biggest suppliers of such chips, but there are a number of others. However, just using a Cirrus codec would still give you AC97 audio, not "Cirrus" audio. Alternatively you could include a full PCI sound card integrated right into the motherboard (same idea as plugging a PCI card into a slot, only skipping the slot part of it). Cirrus makes a sound chipset that can be used in such a fashion, and I believe I have seen the odd motherboard with such "Cirrus" sound integrated onto it. Hope that helps clear a thing or two up. ------------- Tony Hill hilla underscore 20 at yahoo dot ca |
#3
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On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 21:55:04 GMT, Tony Hill
put finger to keyboard and composed: On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 15:02:53 +0000, ghsong wrote: All modern PC motherboards have an on-board modem controller in their specification. However, all those motherboards have just a modem audio connector. I cannot find any RJ-?? style phone jacks. Does it have really a modem? Nope. You need an add-in card, typically using one of those funky little CNR or AMR slots. The add-in cards are dirt-cheap, though these days a PCI software modem is also dirt-cheap. This sort of thing can be built right into the motherboard, but there just isn't much in the way of demand for this except with laptops. The reason I have seen quoted for non-inclusion of these DAAs is that each motherboard model with an included DAA would need to be certified by each country's telecoms authority. A separate universal DAA avoids this requirement. - Franc Zabkar -- Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email. |
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