[music-dsp] Re: SB cards / low latency etc etc

[Angelo Farina]

> > As Veli-Pekka noted, I think the AWE-32 card was the first SB card 
> > able to run 16-bit in both directions.  AFAIK this mode was only 
> > available in Windows as under DOS the card essentially 
> operated as a SB16.

The AWE32 was capable of recording at 16 bit OR playback at 16 bits, but not
simultaneusly. The operation which was started first was getting the 16-bit
DMA channel, and hence the true 16-bits words.
The other operation, instead, was bottlenecked through the 8-bit DMA, so,
although a 16-bit word was apparently transmitted, its 8 LS bits were always
zero.
I am talking of the original AWE32 card (ISA interface). The subsequent PCI
models, instead, did employ a different chip (made by Ensoniq, if I remember
correctly) which was capable of true simultaneous 16-bits playback and
record.

Bye!

Angelo Farina