The following is strictly my own opinion, so keep that in mind as you read
the foolowing conclusions I have drawn. AMR and CNR are both propritary
Intel specs, not widely adopted by others yet. This technology does appear
on non-Intel motherboards, but I am not sure if it appears on any
motherboards that do not use Intel chipsets. I believe AMR was the frst
attempt, then CNR. Since AMR ssems to me to be a total flop, replaced by
another (CNR) that I figure will be another total flop, I suggest avoiding
both completely in the event you ever even sse anything that actually plugs
in to this connector. PCI is a widely accepted standard for any cards you
need to plug in and is used in virtually all systems made today. I believe
AMR and CNR are both attempts by Intel to monopolize the peripherals that
account for audio and communications and eliminate competition. The supposed
benfit is lower cost, since the hardware is integrated into the motherboard.
Intel tried this before with MMX technology to thwart the efforts of other
manufacturers at producing on board audio chipsets. They did this even
though they produced motherboards with audio chipsets from from other
manufacturers. I have an old board with a Soundblaster compatible chipset
that predates MMX. If you add an extra soundcard in (I did on my system,
which has AC97 also), you can pretty much forget about the AC97 as the sound
card will provide all the functionality you will likely need. The sound from
my Intel 815E integrated audio was so bad I went out and bought a new sound
card immediately, something I had hoped to avoid. About the only benefit is
the extra audio connectors and the possibility of hooking up 2
joysticks/midi devices if I need to. So after this diatribe, here are the
answers to your questions.
1) Adding a sound card will most likely give you much better sound, but it
doesn't really add any more channels. It will add it's own channels, but
they are independent of the onboard audio. in other words you don't have two
simultaneous microphone inpunts, etc. This might not be true for certain
applications, but I am not aware of any. All the programs that I am aware of
will only use one audio device and so are limited to the capabilities of
that device. There are multi input/output audio devices, but that's a
different story.
2) The phone line would be plugged into whatever plugs into the AMR (or CNR)
connector that provides full modem capability. That means you still need
more hardware. the hardware may only be a connector bracket and cable, but I
would avoid this as controlerless modems available today cost 15 dollars or
maybe even less. Either of these tye of "modems" would be horrible for
online gaming due to latency problems, though and it is highly unlikely that
either would work with any other operating sytem than windows.
3) I would only use the onboard peripherals in the folling circumstance:
setting up a new system that I was trying to minimize cost on. The onboard
video was severely limited in resolution and used main system memory for the
video. The onboard audio was noisy, so I didn't use that either. The CNR
peripherals were nowhere to be found, so I bought a separate network card
and modem. If you intend to use the system later as a server of some sort,
say running Linux as a proxy server for Internet sharing, then the onboard
audio/video will make sense as nobody would be sitting at that computer and
the integrated peripherals would be good enough. That is the other reason I
bought mine. I tried to ease into a new system pricewise, but found the
functionality not up to snuff.
4) Spdif is a dgital interface that is used to interface digital audio
directly, without having to go into the analog world first. It is used in
mini discs and other digital recording/playback devices. In other words you
need a device with spdif out to use the spdif in on your system or the
opposite: spdif input device to use spdif out on your computer.
5) The short slot is, most likely an AGP video slot for a video card. This
may also take an add in video memory card. At least that's what mine says it
is for. I opted for a separate card for the added resolution, colors and
memory.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryel, Raymond L NWP" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 10:55 AM
Subject: AC'97 on board sound and modem
> I'm confused by the AC'97 on board sound and modem thing:
> Even after reading the article:
> http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/audio/AMR.htm
> ftp://download.intel.com/ial/scalableplatforms/ichx_ac97audio1_0.pdf
> This all began with reading about the VIA KT133A.
> http://www.viatech.com/jsp/en/products/apollo/kt133a.jsp
>
> I still wonder about several things: (probably more if I really understood
> the questions)
>
> 1. Does a sound card only add extra channels with AC'97 is on board?
> 2. if AMR is on the chip then where does the phone line plug in?
> 3. What questions do you ask/answer to decide to use onboard or new
> hardware?
> 4. What is different about S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) and
how
> is that used with AC97?
> 5. Is the short slot for a add-in audio card that plugs into a stereo
> system?
>
> It seems that the more I read the less I understand. Is there a simple
> version of the AC97 explanation with only what you need to know without
all
> the details?
> Thanks
> Raymond Ryel
>
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