From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1QQGD2-0005mR-Eu for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sat, 28 May 2011 09:53:28 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id BE3CA1C00A; Sat, 28 May 2011 09:51:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8CC941C00A for ; Sat, 28 May 2011 09:51:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DDA621B4011 for ; Sat, 28 May 2011 09:51:52 +0000 (UTC) X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new using ClamAV at gentoo.org X-Spam-Score: -2.599 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.599 required=5.5 tests=[BAYES_00=-2.599] Received: from smtp.gentoo.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.gentoo.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 3rOLTlwz9DvV for ; Sat, 28 May 2011 09:51:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.muc.de (colin.muc.de [193.149.48.1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 84A631B400C for ; Sat, 28 May 2011 09:51:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 2464 invoked by uid 3782); 28 May 2011 09:51:42 -0000 Received: from acm.muc.de (pD951B2A0.dip.t-dialin.net [217.81.178.160]) by colin2.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Sat, 28 May 2011 11:51:41 +0200 Received: (qmail 4016 invoked by uid 1000); 28 May 2011 09:50:44 -0000 Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 09:50:44 +0000 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: [gentoo-user] OT: What does the data stream to a sound card look like? Message-ID: <20110528095044.GA3946@acm.acm> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.5 (Fettercairn) From: Alan Mackenzie X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: a3bb0dbf30c15bbf27387f3e29109855 Hi, Gentoo. It occurred to me the other day that I am clueless about how a sound card works. How do the data get into it? Does the sound card use an interrupt to ask for more data? What form do the data take? Say I feed an mp3 through the card. Does the Athlon do the decompression, or does the sound card do it? Last of all, is there a command line program which can play a CD by feeding its data into the sound card? Thanks for any and all enlightenment. -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).