X-Fi and the Elite Pro: SoundBlaster's Return to Greatness
by Derek Wilson on August 30, 2005 11:59 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
X-Fi Processing Elements: The Quartet DSP
Audio effects and processing can be done on a CPU. The latest audio solutions from Intel employ software from Sonic Focus that performs audio processing without the aid of dedicated hardware. If an end user wishes to enable advanced filtering or processing features, the Creative X-Fi has the advantage of being able to perform these tasks without tasking the CPU (thereby freeing up resources for other applications).As is often the case, a general purpose CPU is not the most efficient hardware for the job. The Quartet DSP is able to make quick and efficient work of audio data. As mentioned before, the Quartet is made up of 4 independent two-issue SIMD engines, which Creative calls a TIMD architecture for Thread Interleaved and Multiple Data. The configuration of the SIMD paths in Quartet lend themselves well to audio processing.
Creative didn't tell us how wide the data path is down each SIMD pipe, but Quartet is able to handle either integer or floating point data, making it more flexible than DSPs used on older Creative parts. Special instructions allow differing operations to be performed on SIMD data to enable more efficient audio processing. For instance, the FADDSUB2 instruction performs an add-on-one data path and a subtract on another. The DSP is also able to perform complex floating point math with the real and complex results completing in different paths.
In traditional DSP architectures, raw speed often wins out over programmability. Tradeoffs are always necessary, but the Quartet offers a good balance. The result of one instruction can be used in the next with no stalls or reordering necessary and any instruction can be performed after any other instruction without any conflict. Also, any register can be used as any operand in any instruction. While we don't have all the details on the hardware, a high level language compiler could easily target and optimize for this architecture.
At this point, an easy to develop and efficient compiler only really helps Creative write driver and feature code more easily. It could be possible for Creative to allow developers access to their compiler in order to develop specialized DSP code. We don't know if Creative will actually pursue this in the future, but the option is there should they choose to do so.
To sum up the capabilities of the Quartet DSP, we have this list of features:
- 2 SIMD units per each of 4 simultaneous threads
- fixed and floating point data supported
- 235 opcodes
- up to 1200 MIPS
- can perform up to 4 moves per instruction
- easy to compile and optimize
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tayhimself - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
XTREME Yawn!!It is Xtreme Fidelity with Xcellent Xquality for XTREME music and XTREME gameZ!!!!
No thanks! When will this XTREMEly stupid marketing stop??
I'm still using the nforce2 soundforge because my audigy didnt ship with Creative Mediasource which allows output of music to 5.1. Newer Audigys did ship with MediaSource and could handle 5.1 music output just fine. Needless to say I am XTREMEly pissed and creative and wont be buying something from them again.
Googer - Thursday, September 1, 2005 - link
http://sonicfocus.com/help/help_page.html">http://sonicfocus.com/help/help_page.htmldejerez - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
media source is available for download from creative site. It is a few files all together but this software is for free if you have Audigy. 5.1. upmix option is not in media source but in the card settings that install with the drivers. I had Audigy and used Playcenter and than upgraded for free to Media Source. No problem. I used Audigy with tweaked driver for Audigy 2 to get more features and then eventually bought Audigy 2 ZS and used that with Software availble from their site. I had no problem with an upmix option. I cannot see your point here. Which version of the card do you have?flexy - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
yeah those "extreme gamez" are actually just TWO, namely doom3 and bf2..which (i THINK) support x-fi....if at all. Was not clear in the review. The point is that they even said they did not hear ANY diff between this and "older" hardware.....I think it's ironic that (at elast for gaming and occasional music listening) a $42 Audigy 2 OEM (which has 5.1 output btw) is AS GOOD as a card 10x the money.....and, in all honesty, i do NOT think that my ears are good enough to "notice" a 4db better SNR ratio or similiar nonsense....not to mention someone would have a hard time selling me this card :)
DerekWilson - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
The coloration from the poor frequency response and IMD sweep at 16-bit 44.1kHz really deadens cd auido and mp3s on the Audigy 2 line. Its not about a slightly worse SNR or a little less dynamic range. It's about poor sound reproduction and bad sample rate conversion.Of course, gamers won't care as much about this problem. And we can help get around some of the issues by bypassing windows kernel mixer on Audigy hardware.
I wouldn't buy an X-Fi Elite Pro either. The price point is hard to swallow.
dejerez - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Sample rate conversion does not seem to be an issue any more, right?X-fi audio processor has SRC engine that converts to and from any resolution at 136dB THD+N. Check the review on digit-life. They say
"Judging from our measurements, the problem with a lot of distortions is a thing of the past now. The 44.1 kHz mode in X-Fi cards is no different from 48 kHz"
They also compared the quality of the new hardware SRC X-Fi vs the wide-spread real-time SSRC WinAmp plug-in, "notable for its relatively high quality and decent CPU load"
They conclided by saying
SRC of the X-Fi outperforms the SSRC plug-in and it causes no distortions - audible or visible on the diagram.
xpose - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
i was so close to first :(vijay333 - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
Thanks for the review. Was looking into maybe getting one of these soon but I'll stick with onboard for a while until I get one of the Audigy boards.InuYasha - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
first!Phantronius - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
1st!!! Yes!!!Seriously, looks like I have no reason to part with my Audigy 2 quit yet.