Monday, September 15th 2008
Creative to Unravel a New X-Fi Product
Discrete sound cards aren't the essential PC component they used to be about a decade ago. Several forces such as Microsoft, Intel and upcoming semiconductor companies in Taiwan such as Realtek had then envisioned a day when the required processing power for audio would be completely at the disposal of the CPU, and that audio processing would have a very insignificant impact on CPU performance. Intel made the standards (such as AC'97, Azalia HD), Microsoft made the common software driver model, while semiconductor companies sold CODEC chips to motherboard manufacturers like pieces of toffee.
Today's discrete audio finds its way to an audiophiles, HTPC users willing to splurge, and enthusiasts. So features are all that matter. Creative recently released the X-Fi Titanium series of sound cards that offer native PCI-Express support while running a tweaked CA-20K series audio processor. They've done quite a bit, in propagating the "Xtreme Fidelity" technology beyond their own sound cards. Currently Auzentech, MSI and ASUS hold agreements with Creative to launch PC audio products, while Creative itself makes headphones with the X-Fi DSP, iPod docks and external sound cards. They could well be heading towards another sound card release, and as early as this Wednesday. Indications are, that this could well be an external sound device. Creative has already released two external cards based on the X-Fi technology, though not much is known about this device.
Today's discrete audio finds its way to an audiophiles, HTPC users willing to splurge, and enthusiasts. So features are all that matter. Creative recently released the X-Fi Titanium series of sound cards that offer native PCI-Express support while running a tweaked CA-20K series audio processor. They've done quite a bit, in propagating the "Xtreme Fidelity" technology beyond their own sound cards. Currently Auzentech, MSI and ASUS hold agreements with Creative to launch PC audio products, while Creative itself makes headphones with the X-Fi DSP, iPod docks and external sound cards. They could well be heading towards another sound card release, and as early as this Wednesday. Indications are, that this could well be an external sound device. Creative has already released two external cards based on the X-Fi technology, though not much is known about this device.