Sound card

You may not notice its existence even you use your desktop or laptop computers everyday. But without this, the sound card, you will not be able to hear anything from your computer. A sound card is an expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio signals to and from a computer.

Sound card is usually controlled by programs. Usually, computers have built-in sound cards. But some may require additional expansion sound cards.

A typical sound card has a sound chip. It features a digital-to-analog converter or generated digital data into analog format. The output signal is connected to an amplifier, headphones, or external devices.

Advanced sound card has more than one sound chip to provide higher data rates and multiple simultaneous tasks capacity.

Most sound cards have a line in connector for signal from sound source. The sound card digitizes this signal and stores it on the computer.

Sound Blaster presented by Creative Technology Ltd (www.soundblaster.com) is one of the best of its kind. You can find out more sound card drivers and sound card driver manufacturers by going to www.soundcard-drivers.com

This site maintains listings of sound card drivers available on the web, organized by company. A shortlist of top sound card driver manufacturers includes

• Analog Devices
• Avance Logic
• Creative Labs
• Crystal
• Diamond Multimedia
• Packard Bell
• Roland
• Yamaha
• Zoltrix