X-bit labs

Friday, August 26, 2005

Creative Attempts to Revolutionize PC Audio with X-Fi. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Cards Family Investigated

Earlier this month Creative Technology has released its new lineup of audio cards based on the company’s brand new audio processor, which, the company said, would revolutionize the quality of sound on personal computers.

The new X-Fi, or 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. 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.

While Creative unveiled the Sound Blaster X-Fi family of products on the 8^th of August, only now reviews started to appear. A couple of web-sites have posted reviews about Creative’s latest sound card family.  

“To me it is remarkable to see that large transistor count compared to let’s say the SoundBlaster Live! series which quite honestly is a lovely product. The new X-Fi silicon has almost 26 times more transistors. The untouchable Audigy series had 4.6 Million transistors on that silicon, right now we’re looking at 11 times less transistors compared to the new X-Fi audio processor. The extra RAW calculation power is used for a number of things. The first being to improve the SRC (Sample Rate Conversion). One of the more known issues for all previous generation products was that internal conversion between 44.1 and 48 KHz, that conversion could actually be heard on Audigy 4 and lower products, it’s a huge task. The X-Fi sound processor is compiling it's data at 48 kHz yet the up and down conversion is managed in such an advanced way that there basically is no loss of sound anymore. Small interesting fact, the 0.13 micron manufactured core clock of this card is 400 MHz!,” writes Guru of 3D.

“Creative has never skimped on features but in trying to be all things to all people sometimes gets into difficulties. All flavours of the new cards share the same core X-Fi processor and have common headline features. There’s CMSS-3D and 24-bit Crystalizer, which together are referred to as Xtreme Fidelity and then there’s EAX Advanced HD 5.0. The two higher-end cards also add X-Ram to the feature list. This is 64MB of on board memory dedicated to audio. This can be likened to local texture memory on a graphics card, enabling developers to place data onto the card directly. This will in theory speed up access compared to using system memory and enabled the use of more and higher quality sounds without affecting the frame rate,” explains TrustedReviews.

Guru of 3D: X-Fi Fatality FPS SoundBlaster.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/sound/246/

TrustedReviews: Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music and X-Fi Elite Pro.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=1792

Google Learns to Speak. Beta Google Talk Released

Google continues to expand its services. Following massive success of Gmail that provides mail accounts with unseen storage capabilities as well as efficient spam protection algorithms, as well as Google Earth, Google has released a beta version of Google Talk software.

Google Talk enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free anytime, anywhere in the world. The other interesting feature is a built-in Gmail Notifier, which automatically checks Gmail account and shows brief information about new e-mails. To start using this service you need to download and install the utility which weights 900K, and since only Gmail users are allowed to use this service, you have to login using your Gmail account username and password.

“Google Talk is a simple and free way to talk with and send instant messages to your friends. Like Gmail, Google Talk uses Google’s innovative technologies to help people communicate more effectively and efficiently. Think of it as Google’s approach to communications. Google Talk is easy and intuitive to use. All you need to make free calls is an Internet connection, a microphone, and a speaker. After you download Google Talk, sign in with your Gmail username and password. Invite your friends to download Google Talk, and once they do, you’ll be able to talk or IM with them instantly,” says Google Talk FAQ.

• Google: Google Talk.