

This capability let users select a pre-defined listening environment from a control-panel application (concert hall, theater, headphones, etc.) It also provided hardware-acceleration for EAX, Creative's environmental audio technology. It provided real-time postprocessing effects (such as reverb, flanging, or chorus). The integrated FX8010 was a 32-bit programmable processor with 1 kilobyte of instruction memory. This was possible at this point because systems were being equipped with far more RAM than previously, and PCI offered far faster and more efficient data transfer than the old ISA bus. Ī major design change from its predecessor (the EMU8000) was that the EMU10K1 used system memory, accessed over the PCI bus, for the wavetable samples, rather than using expensive on-board memory. The EMU10K1 featured hardware acceleration for DirectSound and EAX 1.0 and 2.0 ( environmental audio extensions), along with a high-quality 64-voice MIDI sample-based synthesizer and an integrated FX8010 DSP chip for real-time digital audio effects. Manufactured in a 0.35 µm 3-metal-layer CMOS process, it is a 2.44 million transistor ASIC rated at 1000 MIPS. Sound Blaster Live! (August 1998) saw the introduction of the EMU10K1 audio processor.


Overview EMU10K1 Digital Signal Processor EMU10K1-NDF digital sound processor Sound Blaster Live! Sound Blaster Live! Value / Compaq / Intel / IBM / NEC The Live! was introduced in August 1998 and variations on the design remained Creative's primary sound card line into the early 2000's. It also included higher quality sound output at all levels, quadrophonic output, and a new MIDI synthesizer with 64 sampled voices. This allowed for a much wider selection of, and longer playing, samples. Moving from ISA to PCI allowed the card to dispense with onboard memory, storing digital samples in the computer's main memory and then accessing them in real time over the bus. Sound Blaster Live! is a PCI add-on sound card from Creative Technology Limited for PCs.
