NVIDA now has full hardware mixing support under Linux

jaska · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 9:41 am Post subject:

The current MSI motherboard I have has kt400 via chipset. Despite the bad rep from the previous chipsets kt400 has been good, no unexplainable crashes or anything of that sort.

alsh · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 5:11 pm Post subject:

TenPin · Guru Joined: 26 Aug 2002 Posts: 500 Location: Kansas City

I don't have an nforce but I mailed them anyway :)

Don't knock VIA. KT133 rock solid here for about 3 years ;)

cereal-chiller · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:10 pm Post subject:

madmanuk · n00b Joined: 01 Nov 2003 Posts: 63 Location: England

I have 2 nForce 2 boards so I emailed them twice.
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etnoy · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 10:06 am Post subject:

jay · l33t Joined: 08 May 2002 Posts: 980

I have only a nforce 1 motherboad. Before I'm pestering them, I want to know what this thing can do? And is there anything missing in the sound driver?

Edit:
I googled for the specs but I cannot make sense out of this:
http://www.analog.com/UploadedFiles/Data_Sheets/34962224AD1885_0.pdf
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Admiral LSD · Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 1:36 am Post subject:

nVidia have a Tech Brief for the APU on their site:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/LO_20020712_6735.html (I

along with a short description of what the thing can do:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/feature_soundstorm.html

Neither are the most objective documents in the world but should still provide enough information to be useful. The nForce APU has remained virtually unchanged since the MCP-X (Xbox) so as long as your nForce1 board has an MCP-D (Regular MCP, both 1 and 2, users needn't apply as without an APU they won't benefit any from nVidia, or anyone else, releasing a decent APU driver) then you'll benefit.
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jay · l33t Joined: 08 May 2002 Posts: 980

Thank you very much for the links. Those enlightened me a bit.

Only one question left: What is the difference between a MCP-D and Soundstorm?

So far I have checked the mainboard specs (it's a MSI K7n415Pro) and it says it has a MCP-D with SPDIF output. So it is likely that it contains a HW Dolby encoder, right? This means I'm one of those that will benefit from a proper driver allowing me to do hardware mixing and AC3 passthrough.

The key question is however: Will they support Linux when they plan to ship their new boards no longer with Soundstorm? Read here:
http://www.nforcershq.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1038
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Admiral LSD · Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:50 pm Post subject:

SoundStorm is just a certification like Intel's Centrino. It doesn't refer to a specific piece of hardware as such. It refers to nForce2 motherboards that feature the MCP-T, have at least SPDIF output ready to go out of the box and enough analogue audio connectors to have discrete 5.1 channel output, Line-In and Mic-In without doubling up. The actual APU itself, which is at the core of being eligible for SS certification, has remained virtually unchanged from the MCP-X to the MCP-T encompassing your MCP-D.

Any board that has an MCP-T, with the exception of the Chaintech 7NJS (which has an MCP-T but stupidly disables the APU replacing it instead with an external CMI sound chip which is nowhere near as capable as the APU), is technically SoundStorm capable but unless it meets the nVidia requirements it can't officially carry the SoundStorm tag. My 8RDA+ is like this, it has an MCP-T and the facility for SPDIF but since it doesn't include the SPDIF bracket in the box (it is available as an option though) and doubles up the Mic-In and Line-In inputs it can't officially be called a "SoundStorm" board even though it's audio hardware is every bit as capable as a "true" SS board such as say, the A7N8X Deluxe (which in may ways is an inferior board to the 8RDA+).

As long as you have the APU then you'll benefit from any decent driver that gets released.
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jay · l33t Joined: 08 May 2002 Posts: 980

Sent a mail to the nforce guys, since I'm planning to upgrade soon and want to have decent drivers then.
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SavageMindz · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 2:08 am Post subject:

Sent

flazz · Guru Joined: 22 Nov 2003 Posts: 496 Location: Florida

i just sent mine.

maybe we are emailing the wrong ppl. maybe we should email some sales ppl or some managers or something; i.e., someone who cares about sales. it might take some work to find an email addy, but i think its a better solution than bugging engineers who take the philosophy,"I'm not getting paid to make it work in linux."

femtotech · n00b Joined: 19 Dec 2002 Posts: 23

Sent

Hello-

I am the owner of an nVidia nForce2 chipset motherboard with Soundstorm Audio. I would like to request that nVidia develop a fully functional sound driver for Linux including hardware mixing. If this cannot be done at nVidia, then the necessary information for the open-source community to do so should be released.

I am a hardware and Linux enthusiast and have been a strong supporter of nVidia hardware for many years. I upgrade my motherboard and videocard 1-2 times per year and would like to keep purchasing nVidia products, but issues like poor Linux driver support will force me to investigate other product lines.

Thank you.

FuR · n00b Joined: 04 Mar 2003 Posts: 34

Sent them one as well..

HeadHolio · Guru Joined: 10 Aug 2002 Posts: 445

This thread is kind of old, but I sent a request anyways.

krunk · Guru Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 316

The thread will only be too old when hardware mixing is here

Thanks a lot.
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piggie · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2003 2:32 am Post subject:

Sent.

krunk · Guru Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 316

Well said, piggy.

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holymacaroni · n00b Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 63

i sent them an email, but i bit the bullet yesterday and just grabbed a SBLive! card for the time being. sigh.

MighMoS · Guru Joined: 24 Apr 2003 Posts: 416 Location: @ ~

email sent.

RK · Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 10:23 pm Post subject:

On the topic of ALSA drivers, how many people are aware that the open source ALSA driver recommended for nForce2 is nothing more than a standard AC 97 driver which does all the signals processing in software, bypassing the Nvidia's embedded DSP? Effectively, you might as well buy a cheap VIA or SiS based MB with just an AC 97 codec, since you aren't getting anything out of Nvidia's chip soundwise unless you are running Windows. nForce2, of course, also uses the codec, but the important difference is that all the number crunching is done by the embedded DSP on the southbridge and not by the CPU.

If Nvidia absolutely must release a closed source driver, they should at least design so that the binary-only code is restricted to one part of the driver, and that the kernel/ALSA interface (since releasing an OSS driver now would be pointless) is open. That way it will be possible to at least compile the driver to a kernel of our choice, rather than be restricted to those kernel to which Nvidia's driver team has compiled the drivers, and, if necessary, adapt it to newer (that is, development) kernels as well as newer versions of ALSA if Nvidia isn't in a particular hurry to update the driver or decides to abandon support for it entirely. That way, Nvidia gets to keep their oh-so-secret intellectual property and we get at least a reasonable compromise as far as flexibility is concerned.

HeadHolio · Guru Joined: 10 Aug 2002 Posts: 445

Not sure if this is a start or not, but there is definately some progress being made (unfortunately none by NVidia).

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/notes-full.php3

(scroll down for the nforce stuff)

RK · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 4:05 pm Post subject:

As I said before, this stuff is only using the codec. The DSP is not documented by Nvidia, and reverse engineering the Windows drivers would be a hell of a lot of work. Support for S/PDIF is nothing special, Nvidia itself implemented that in the nvaudio driver, the type of output is controlled by the codec and not by the DSP. However, you cannot get, for example, hardware mixing from a codec, nor can you get any kind of 3D sound acceleration, basically the codec is just a DAC and an ADC, as well as an S/PDIF interface, if it supports that, which, in the case of nForce2, with which almost all MB manufacturers use a Realtek ALC-650 codec, it does. On standard AC 97 onboard soundsystems (such as used by the MCP, as opposed to the MCP-T) it is the drivers, either in Windows or in any other operating system, that do the signals processing.