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- AD/DA-Converter
Analog-digital/digital-analog converter.
Converts analog signals to digital signals
and back. The electrical oscillation is sampled
in short intervals and every value is
converted to a number. The more steps you are
using to convert your value, the better is the quality.
- AHI
Amiga Hardware Interface. Device-independent
driver system for AMIGA audio hardware. Is used
by many AMIGA soundtools.
- ASIC
Application Specific Integrated circuit.
Integrated Circuit especially designed for
one purpose. Normally it includes a many
functions.
- Codec
Coding/decoding unit. See AD/DA-Converter
- DAT
Digital Audio Tape: a magnetic tape to store
digital audio data. DAT was the first digital
recording system and was released 1987.
It works similar to video tapes.
DAT is primarily used in studios.
- Dolby Digital AC-3
Surround sound system developed by the Dolby
Laboratories
. It's able to transmit up to
five audio channels an one sub bass channel.
Mainly used in cinemas and on DVD.
It's based on the human auditory sensation
in order to filter out inaudible sounds from the signal.
This reduces the amount of data to be
transmitted or stored.
- DTS
Digital Theater System by Steven Spielberg.
Digital surround sound system used for cinema
and DVD. First used within the movie "Jurassic Park".
Like Dolby AC-3 used to reduce the amount of data.
- DVD
Digital Versatile Disc. It looks like a CD, but
holds more data and it's mainly designed for digital
video. More than 18 GB of data can be stored on a DVD,
which can be video, music, computer data or interactive
games in great picture and sound quality.
- EUR
Euro. In a little insignificantly region on
earth it's used as means to simplify the
ware-money-transactions.
- FIFO
First-In-First-Out data buffer. Data which are
written first are read first.
- Enhanced full duplex mode
Mode to record and play audio data at the same time. In opposite to
"full duplex mode" the "enhanced full duplex mode" allows to select
a different sample frequency for record and playback.
- MPEG
Motion Picture Experts Group is a sub group of
International Standardization Organization / International
Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/ IEC). A family of standards for
coding audio-visual information (video, music) in
a digitally compressed form. These standards was developed
by the members of ISO/IEC. One of them is the MP3
(MPEG-2 layer 3) format which is used for stereo sound.
The REPULSE soundcard can also handle MPEG-2 multichannel,
which is used for up to 7 channels plus sub-bass channel.
- Optical cable
A cable that is capable of transmitting data like
a normal cable. It is less susceptible for
disturbing noise than a normal cable. In that way
quality is much better and it's perfect
for computer's audio transmission.
- PCB
Printed Circuit Board. Carries the integrated
circuits and connects them.
- PCM
Pulse Code Modulation. A non-compressed method of coding
audio signals.
It is used for audio-CD's.
- Sample frequency
The analog signal is periodically transferred
into digital signals. This frequency of transfers per second is called
sample frequency or sample rate. Common sample
rates are 44.1 kHz for audio-CD's, and 32 khz
or 48 kHz for DAT.
- Sample resolution
Determines the number steps used by the
codec to transfer analog to digital signals.
The standard AMIGA sound uses 8 bit, CD uses
16 bit. For professional purposes 24 and more
bits are used.
- S/P-DIF
Sony/Philips DIFferential. It was used first with professional
equipment to transfer digital audio data.
With special operation the PCM data and
additional information like copyright or quality will be
coded into a serial bit stream. The transfer can be done
using coaxial or optical cable. The S/P-DIF standard
allows to transfer compressed data like Dolby Digital AC-3,
MPEG-2 multichannel or DTS.
- Toccata
One of the first soundcards for the AMIGA.
Developed and produced by the
MacroSystems GmbH
.
- waitstate
Sometimes while accessing the Zorro Bus
the components are not able to transmit data immediately.
In that case the processor has to wait for the response.
This is called wait state. As a result of this the data
transfer and the processor speed is recognizably slowed down.
- Zorro II
Standard for the AMIGA 2/3/4000 expansion
cards. For A500/1200 there are expansion kits
which are offering Zorro II slots.
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