Ensoniq AudioPCI

[Luigi Rizzo]

> I've been asked to get ensoniq AudioPCI based cards working with FreeBSD.
> It seems that NetBSD and Linux both have support for 'em, so we're a
> bit behind on that front. Is anyone playing with this under
> Luigi's new driver framework? It appears to be mostly ISA based. Adding
> PCI support to it would look like mostly a hack.
>
> Has anyone looked at the NetBSD sound subsystem? I'd say it looks kind
> of promising; but I'm not too keen on yet another audio system...

I don't have a precise position. On one hand, it is nice to have all
audio cards under the same device driver, because it makes life easier
for the user. On the other hand, differences between cards can be large
so it might be more effort to merge a new card than to write a brand
new driver. E.g. some russian hacker sent me a standalone driver for
the ESS cards which probably has infinitely better support for those
cards than my driver.

Because of the differences between PCI and isa, i think that if you
feel like writing a standalone driver for the Ensoniq, go for it.

Whether it is simpler or harder than integrating this into the "pcm"
driver, i cannot say, it all depends on how much code can you adapt
(i have seen some PCI audio card data sheets that show partial
emulation of ISA cards on the PCI bus, but i am not sure if they allow
e.g. full duplex).

cheers
luigi
-----------------------------+--------------------------------------
Luigi Rizzo | Dip. di Ingegneria dell'Informazione
email: lu...@iet.unipi.it | Universita' di Pisa
tel: +39-50-568533 | via Diotisalvi 2, 56126 PISA (Italy)
fax: +39-50-568522 | http://www.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/
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