Creative Technology announced its new audio processor nearly seven years after the EMU10K-series chip used in Live! and Audigy series of audio cards was introduced. The new X-Fi, or Xtreme Fidelity, audio processor is said to be 24 times more powerful than predecessor and is claimed to improve sound quality of music, movies and games.

The Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor has more than 51 million transistors, and is capable of 10 000+ MIPS. The audio processor is designed with multiple engines, so it can dynamically direct resources through a modular architecture to completely change the way audio is managed for any application. Xtreme Fidelity suppors a combination of 24-bit audio with a minimum of 110db SNR (sound to noise ratio) as well as the new CMSS (Creative Multi Speaker Surround) 3D headphone and surround speaker technology.

Creative’s new audio chip features an SRC engine that precise enough to convert audio to any other resolution at near transparency with 136db THD+N and digital-matched recordings in resolutions from 44.1kHz to 96kHz. The Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor also supports ASIO recording with latency as low as one millisecond with zero CPU load.

The Xtreme Fidelity audio processor provides a new extension of the EAX, the EAX 5.0, which is likely to enhance quality in future games.

The Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor will be used by Creative Labs in future audio cards as well as by E-MU Systems, the Creative Professional audio business, for future desktop authoring solutions designed for professional musicians.

Creative will be providing a sneak preview of the new applications made possible by the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor at E3 2005 in Los Angeles, from May 18-20, 2005.