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A Closer Look:::...
If, as some people think,
you must judge a card by the size of its
chips, then Gainward are already on a
loser.
Those two additional edge
connectors are for CD and Auxiliary input,
though you'd not know from looking at
them as Gainward have not silk-screened
their identity onto the PCB meaning you're
forced to check the electronic manual
to find out which is which.
The bright red PCB features
a fairly sparse array of small capacitors
and silicon, and in fact the largest chip
on their is VIA's very own Envy24HT-S
sound controller.
- Analog
20-bit/48KHz I/Os
- Digital
I/Os supporting 24-bit/192KHz I/Os
- Bit-for-bit
accurate transfers
- 3
synchronous I²S / AC-link output data
stream pairs
- 2
synchronous I²S / AC-link input data
stream pairs
- PCI
2.2 interface with bus mastering and
burst modes
- Multi-channel
AC-link supported alternatively
- Integrated
S/PDIF transmitter with IEC958 line
driver
- Digital
loopback and stream routing mechanism
- Peak
meters on all streams
- MPU-401
MIDI UART port
- ACPI
and PCI PMI support
- I²C
subset interface peripherals control
- 16-pin,
direct access GPIO port
- Windows®
WDM drivers
- 24.576
and 22.5792 MHz crystal operation
- 3.3V
operating supply (5V tolerant I/O)
- 128-Pin
PQFP (14 x 20mm body)
 From
top to bottom we see microphone socket,
line in socket, front speaker channel
out, surround speaker channel out, centre/subwoofer
channel out, rear surround channel out
and optical SPDIF out.
All the sockets are appropriately
colour coded with the attempts to do anything
flash like gold plating them for better
electrical contact.
Partnering the ENVY audio
controller is VIA's VT1616 Vinyl Six-TRAC
Audio CODEC. Supporting the full AC'97
2.2 specs and offering 6 channel surround
sound, the VT1616 offers a lot of punch
for its size.
- AC'97
2.2 S/PDIF extension compliant Codec
- 18-bit,
6 channel DAC outputs
- 1
Hz resolution VSR (Variable Sampling
Rate) on all channels
- Integrated
IEC958 line driver for S/PDIF
- S/PDIF
compressed digital or LPCM audio out
- Hardware
downmix option to 2 channels
- 3D
stereo expansion for simulated surround
- 18-bit
independent rate stereo ADC
- 4
stereo, 2 mono analog line-level inputs
- Second
line-level output with volume control
- External
Audio Amplifier Control
- Low
Power consumption mode
- Exceeds
Microsoft® WHQL logo requirements
- 3.3V
digital, 3.3 or 5V analog power supply
- 48-pin
LQFP small footprint package
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