AC'97 (short for Audio Codec '97) is Intel Corporation's Audio "Codec" standard developed by the Intel Architecture Labs in 1997, and used mainly in on-motherboards, modems, and sound cards. The following article is about the multinational corporation; intel is also an abbreviation for intelligence, used in reference to military intelligence and espionage. ... Audio can mean: sound that can be heard electronics or other signals of frequencies audible to humans (about 20--20,000 Hz) broadcasting or reception of sound high-fidelity sound reproduction sound recording and reproduction in general I hear in Latin This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which... Codec is a portmanteau of coder/decoder, which describes a device or program capable of performing transformations on a data stream or signal. ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sony Playstation motherboard A motherboard, also known as main board, logic board or system board, is the central or primary circuit board making up a complex electronic system, such as a computer. ... A modem (a portmanteau word constructed from modulator and demodulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal (sound), to encode digital information, and that also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. ... A sound card based on VIA Envy chip A sound card is a computer expansion card that can input and output sound under program control. ...

Intel's use of the word audio codec refers to signals being encoded/decoded to/from analog audio to digital audio, thus actually a combined audio AD/DA-converter. This should not be confused with a codec in the sense of converting from one binary format to another, such as an MP3 codec. An audio codec is a computer program that compresses/decompresses digital audio data according to a given audio file format or streaming audio format. ... An analog or analogue signal is any continuously variable signal. ... Digital audio describes sound recording and reproduction systems which work by using a digital representation of the audio waveform. ... AD on USB In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (abbreviated ADC, A/D, or A to D) is a device that converts continuous signals to discrete digital numbers. ... In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC or D-to-A) is a device for converting a digital (usually binary) code to an analogue signal (current, voltage or charges). ... MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format. ...

Audio components integrated into Intel chipsets consists of 2 components - an AC'97 digital controller, which is built into the I/O Controller Hub (ICH) of the chipset, and an AC'97 codec, which is the analog component of the architecture. AC'97 defines a high-quality, 16- or 20-bit audio architecture for the PC that is used in the majority of today's desktop platforms. AC'97 supports 96 kHz in 20-bit stereo resolution and 48 kHz in 20-bit stereo for multichannel recording and playback. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) (founded 1968) is a US-based multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... Chipset refers to a group of integrated circuits (chips) that are designed to work together, and are usually marketed as a single product. ... A bit (abbreviated b) is the most basic information unit used in computing and information theory. ... A kilohertz (kHz) is a unit of frequency equal to 1,000 hertz (1,000 cycles per second). ...

Integrated audio is implemented with the AC'97 Codec on the motherboard, a CNR (Communication and Networking Riser) card, or an AMR (Audio and Modem Riser) card. Sony Playstation motherboard A motherboard, also known as main board, logic board or system board, is the central or primary circuit board making up a complex electronic system, such as a computer. ... CNR might be an acronym or abbreviation for: Canadian National Railway Carrier-to-noise Ratio Communications and Networking Riser This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The audio/modem riser, also known as an AMR slot, is a special short expansion slot on the motherboard of a personal computer. ... In sand casting, a riser prevents shrinkage in metal cast parts during the solidification process. ...

AC '97 v2.3 enables Plug and Play audio for the end user. This version provides parametric data about the analog device being used. Plug and Play is a term used in the computer field to describe a computers ability to have new devices, normally peripherals, added to it without having to restart the computer. ... An analog or analogue signal is any continuously variable signal. ...

In 2004 AC'97 was superseded by Intel High Definition Audio (HD Audio). 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Intel High Definition Audio refers to the specification released by Intel (in the year 2004) for delivering high definition audio that is capable of playing back more channels at higher quality than previous integrated audio formats. ...

External link

• Intel Audio Chipset Designs (http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/audio/)