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August 2, 1999
Interviewed: David Crowell Product Marketing Manager for Computer Audio products - Crystal Audio/Cirrus Logic Date: August 2, 1999
These days lots of attention gets paid to Creative Labs and
Aureal and people tend to forget about the "little" guys. Well you may be
surprised to find out that one of the "little" guys is ranked right at the top
of the pack in PC audio sales. Cirrus Logic / Crystal Audio is who we are referring to. In
order to get some background we contacted David Crowell who is the Product Marketing
Manager for Computer Audio products at Cirrus Logic / Crystal Audio and asked him if he
could offer us some insight into this silent giant.
Here is what David had to say:
As the new Forward Concepts report mentions, we are #1 in computer audio currently.
This is attributed mainly to our business at major PC manufacturers on motherboards and
portables, and less to add-in cards lately.
To give a little history, this stems from our approach to the ISA-to-PCI conversion
that has happened in recent years. We offered a PCI DSP device that had plenty of
processing capability, but no legacy ISA support. This chip was teamed up with our ISA
codecs to make a great motherboard audio solution: total ISA hardware compatibility plus a
programmable PCI DSP. This made us very popular with motherboards and notebooks, but it
was not a viable add-in card strategy because it required attachment to both ISA and PCI
buses. So we have been supplying the Dells, IBMs, HPs, eMachines, and Apples of the world
but have not had a retail add-in card presence.
But that is changing. We are now releasing final code for our four-channel DSP
solution that will have unparalleled audio performance. Our four-channel AC '97 codec has
20-bit DACs for ultra-low distortion in the 0.006% range, and for great dynamic range. Our
sample rate converters on the DSP are designed to preserve high audio quality, and we have
selected a professional DLS sample set for superior wavetable. We used our expertise from
the professional audio chips we have made over the years to maximize audio performance and
offer functions such as S/PDIF I/O on our chip. Several add-in board manufacturers are
preparing to release products based on our reference design, so we hope to have retail
presence soon with our 4-channel solution. We use Sensaura's technologies to provide EAX
and A3D compatibility along with 4-speaker HRTF-based positioning for games with 3D audio.
One of our nice features is our enhancement of wavetable music with rear-channel ambience.
We take two-channel midi music and send a reverberated version to the rear speakers, and
it sounds great. Our solution also uses the DSP for Acoustic Echo Cancellation, which
eliminates the far-end echo that occurs when using Netmeeting or other videoconferencing
applications.
In addition to our high-end DSP solutions, we are also very active in the other
segments of computer audio. Our basic PCI solutions offer solid legacy compatibility for
games at good prices, and we offer support of all popular operating systems with our
drivers. In the emerging AC '97 market, we offer many products, all featuring our renowned
audio performance. We supply the audio codec for all iMacs and most of Apple's other
products, as we have for years.
Ever since we entered computer audio 6 years ago with a 16-bit codec for Sun
workstations, we have been committed to providing the best audio performance in computers.
As computers are used more for entertainment, high quality audio becomes more important.
The performance of home consumer audio equipment must be met or beaten on the PC, and we
are using our technology to drive that.
August 2, 1999
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