Realtek on board ALC658 audio

Hi list,

I just read on the Realtek website
(http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/p...odelid=2003084) that
the Realtek ALC658 on board audio chip is A3D compatible. Is this just a
marketing trick, or does it really implement the full A3D API? And if it
does, isn't it against patent-laws, seeing as how Creative bought Aureal
(A3D manufacturer)?

TIA
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"Halfgaar" wrote
in :
Hi list,

I just read on the Realtek website
(http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/p...odelid=2003084)
that the Realtek ALC658 on board audio chip is A3D compatible. Is
this just a marketing trick, or does it really implement the full A3D
API? And if it does, isn't it against patent-laws, seeing as how
Creative bought Aureal (A3D manufacturer)?

TIA

It also supports EAX 1.0 and 2.0. Part of the expense of a codec is the
licenses purchased for it. The more licenses purchased, the more
expense.

Their web search sucks (and is probably broken). Nothing turns up from
a search on "license", but then nothing shows up on a search on "EAX"
which is obviously mentioned in several of their spec pages for their
products.


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*Vanguard* wrote:

It also supports EAX 1.0 and 2.0. Part of the expense of a codec is the
licenses purchased for it. The more licenses purchased, the more
expense.

But the point with A3D is, that creative bought it to silence it. As far as
I know, they're not licensing it to other manufacturers.

BTW, what exactly does the word "codec" mean in the context of on board
audio. Does it mean that the hardware can't do anything and so the CPU is
occupied by processing the effects?

Halfgaar
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On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 17:20:35 +0100, Halfgaar
wrote::

Hi list,

I just read on the Realtek website
(http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/p...odelid=2003084) that
the Realtek ALC658 on board audio chip is A3D compatible. Is this just a
marketing trick, or does it really implement the full A3D API? And if it
does, isn't it against patent-laws, seeing as how Creative bought Aureal
(A3D manufacturer)?

TIA

Before Aureal went down, they did license out the A3D 1.0 API and it
was implemented on a lot of cards other than those based on Aureal
tech. Aureal even put out an A3D 1.0 emulation driver that would
emulate A3D (in so far as the hardware would allow) on any DirectSound
compatible card.

As a side note, just implementing the API doesn't necessarily mean
that they're violating any patents. The API is just a collection of
function names (the interface) that's used to do the programming. It
wouldn't necessarily go under patent law. If anything, it would be a
copyright and licensing issue.
----------------------------------------
Thanks,
MCheu

mcheu wrote:

Before Aureal went down, they did license out the A3D 1.0 API and it
was implemented on a lot of cards other than those based on Aureal
tech. Aureal even put out an A3D 1.0 emulation driver that would
emulate A3D (in so far as the hardware would allow) on any DirectSound
compatible card.

Is that emulation driver still available? I would love to give it a try. A3D
2 is probably not possible to emulate, is it?

But what your saying is that Realtek may still have the license from when
Aureal was still alive?

As a side note, just implementing the API doesn't necessarily mean
that they're violating any patents. The API is just a collection of
function names (the interface) that's used to do the programming. It
wouldn't necessarily go under patent law. If anything, it would be a
copyright and licensing issue.

I know what an API is, I just meant that when you implement the API, it
would not make sense not to use the actual system.
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On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 23:34:43 +0100, Halfgaar
wrote::

mcheu wrote:

Before Aureal went down, they did license out the A3D 1.0 API and it
was implemented on a lot of cards other than those based on Aureal
tech. Aureal even put out an A3D 1.0 emulation driver that would
emulate A3D (in so far as the hardware would allow) on any DirectSound
compatible card.

Is that emulation driver still available? I would love to give it a try. A3D
2 is probably not possible to emulate, is it?

Here's a link. The file you want is called A2D. The last version
released just before Aureal went down was 3.12, that's as recent as
you can get.

http://members.optushome.com.au/kirben/drivers.html

The links appear to be live, but I've not tried downloading anything
from the site.

After reading the description blurb, I'm not so sure anymore whether
it emulates A3D 2.0 or not. I never used it because at the time I was
using a MX300, which was a real Vortex2 based card -- as such, I've no
idea how well these work.


----------------------------------------
Thanks,
MCheu

mcheu wrote:

Here's a link. The file you want is called A2D. The last version
released just before Aureal went down was 3.12, that's as recent as
you can get.

http://members.optushome.com.au/kirben/drivers.html

The links appear to be live, but I've not tried downloading anything
from the site.

The downloads were succesful.


After reading the description blurb, I'm not so sure anymore whether
it emulates A3D 2.0 or not. I never used it because at the time I was
using a MX300, which was a real Vortex2 based card -- as such, I've no
idea how well these work.

The descriptions on the site seem to be written by someone with poor
understanding of English, I don't quite follow what he means.

About A2D I understand that it doesn't emulate the entire A3D system, but
only occlusion effects.

About the EAX unified drivers, I don't quite understand what soundcards it
can be used for: "Only for use with Vortex 2 Windows 95/98 4.06.2048
reference drivers, allows EAX 2.0/3.0 software emulation on any sound card
which supports EAX 1.0." Only for use with (...) allows EAX 2/3 on *any*
soundcard... Can you clarify?

Halfgaar
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Halfgaar wrote in message ...


The descriptions on the site seem to be written by someone with poor
understanding of English, I don't quite follow what he means.

About A2D I understand that it doesn't emulate the entire A3D system, but
only occlusion effects.

About the EAX unified drivers, I don't quite understand what soundcards it
can be used for: "Only for use with Vortex 2 Windows 95/98 4.06.2048
reference drivers, allows EAX 2.0/3.0 software emulation on any sound card
which supports EAX 1.0." Only for use with (...) allows EAX 2/3 on *any*
soundcard... Can you clarify?

Halfgaar

I really don't know. The 2048 vortex2 drivers were supposed to have
EAX [2.0?] support integrated, but I don't remember ever having to
install a separate module to enable it. Of course, it's been a few
years. Hopefully someone else knows. I suppose you could try asking
the owner of the site.

=========================================
Thanks,
mcheu

MCheu wrote:

I really don't know. The 2048 vortex2 drivers were supposed to have
EAX [2.0?] support integrated, but I don't remember ever having to
install a separate module to enable it. Of course, it's been a few
years. Hopefully someone else knows.

The point was to emulate eax3 (also called Advanced HD).

I suppose you could try asking the owner of the site.

I suppose I could

Halfgaar
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