Chris S., concerning patents....
You listed
"#5,698,807(issued 12/16/97), #5,698,803 (issued
12/16/97) and #5,111,727 (issued 5/12/97)"
I'm not sure you mean 5,111,727 since it was issued in 1992?
The only one of interest of the three would be #5,698,803. This is about a cache system for playback of digital audio as it pertains to wavetable synthesis. This wouldn't necessarily affect anything concerning PCI audio, since playback of pure digital audio doesn't need a cache. It may affect wavetable playback methods used by others , but it may well depend on the details of the cache system. I haven't looked at it yet.
Nvidia's patent 5680592 is more applicable to PCI audio from an ISA legacy standpoint. They were the first with a commerical PCI based card that provided digital audio and wavetable + FM synthesis. |
