Aureal rolls PCI ICs for audio market

Electronic News, July 14, 1997

Based on the company's proprietary Vortex architecture, the audio chip, dubbed AU8820, features full DOS legacy compatibility, 48 DMA streaming channels, 32-voice wave table music synthesis, Microsoft DirectSound, DirectSound3D and AC-3 processing engines and an ISA bridge controller for modem chipsets.

Under development for two years, the AU8820 features an ISA bus interface for modems to be hooked directly into the chip--something Aureal claims no other audio chip vendor has. This allows OEMs to build PCI-based audio-telephony combination cards for PCs without an ISA bus. The Vortex chip also contains an Aureal A3D processing engine that creates sound streams that appear to be positioned in 3-D space surrounding a user.

"We are the first audio vendor to do a PCI audio chip," said Toni Schneider, VP of marketing for Computer products Aureal. "There is no doubt that moving to high performance, high quality audio requires a PCI-based solution. ISA won't meet the requirements that Microsoft and others have handed down for audio but PCI will. The AU8820 is the first step in accomplishing this."

Mr. Schneider noted that one part of the device is manufactured by another vendor. Aureal recently licensed Rockwell's Soundblaster and Soundblaster Pro compatible technology for the Vortex chip, which is currently sampling priced at $16 in 10,000 unit quantities.

The PCI audio chip market is not expected to rise to dominance in PCs until the year 1999, Mr. Schneider said. He said he believes there will be approximately 1 million devices shipped this year and that number will substantialy increase in the following two years.

"Companies in the ISA camp are not even trying to develop PCI audio chips and are still trying to milk ISA for as much as they can for as long as they can. But in the near future, these companies will be sitting on a dead technology," Mr. Schneider said.

Commenting on what possessed S3 to recently license the Aureal's A3D technology when S3 is a direct competitor with its own audio chip, Mr Schneider said, "People that are licensing the A3D technology now are doing so because their OEMs tell them to. For us this guarantees for the time being that we will be generating money for the A3D product line while cementing a foothold in the PCI audio market as well." Cirrus Logic and Oak Technology--also competitors--have licensed the A3D technology as well, he added.

Aureal has been approached by numerous companies regarding the Vortex PCI audio chip and possible licensing agreements. Aureal has also been approached by workstation companies as well to migrate the A3D or Vortex chips to the workstation platform.