SOUND CARDS

Sound cards were originally designed to add sound to games but were soon expanded to add "multimedia" capabilities to the computer and they have several diverse functions built into them. The one sound card (audio adapter) that you have is really an audio amplifier, an FM synthesizer; it has a MIDI port and a game port, so you can see it does quite a lot for just one card.

As they are being used today, they may be used for any of the following:

  • Adding stereo sound to multimedia entertainment (game) software
  • Playing audio CDs
  • Playing MP3 audio files
  • Playing audio-video clips
  • Playing DVD films with audio
  • Enabling PC use by handicapped individuals
  • Audioconferencing and network telephony
  • Increasing the effectiveness of educational software, particulary for kids
  • Adding sound effects to business presentations and training software
  • Creating music by using MIDI hardware and software
  • Adding voice notes to files
  • Enabling a PC to read
  • Providing support for voice-control computer software
  • Providing support for voice-dictation and playback software (speech-to-text and text-to-speech)
  • and more, of course.

Each of the above subjects could be worth an article (any would be worthy of research) but I'll finish this with a little bit about some of the physical aspects of the sound card.

Most sound cards currently installed in computers are probably 16 bit SoundBlaster Pro compatible 16 bit ISA cards, with the newest being PCI (32/64 bit) cards - probably built-in. The back panel of the card (or riser, if it's built-in) will usually have jacks for your speakers, a microphone, line-in, maybe line-out and a joystick/MIDI connector.

Sound cards, because of their diverse nature, are motherboard resource hogs. They usually use at least one IRQ, 2 DMAs and 3 or more I/O addresses. What all that means is not really important unless you have a resource conflict - then it's vital.

Most people, fortunately, will never see a resource conflict on a computer - it generally happens when you try to add a new piece of hardware for the first time, especially one that requires a lot of resources such as a sound card. Resolving resource conflicts can be tedious and time consuming. A hint: using Win98, go to Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->System Information and become familiar with the Hardware Resource section.

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