TABLE OF CONTENTS Engineers operate at the interface between science and society
Dean Gordon Brown; Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Audio interfaces in a PC environment can be daunting. Many may be new to PC designers and the wide variety of analog and digital connectors and supporting circuitry and protocols can be intimidating. The following pages describe the common interfaces that can be encountered in a PC that is intended to be used as an audio entertainment device, covering the connectors used, briefly looking at the interface circuitry, and discussing some common problems and their solutions.
Until recently, the analog interface has been the only means of interconnection to PC audio. Sound cards and many motherboards have provided a line input, line output, and possibly a microphone input jack. Analog interfaces still include these primary connections but they have been expanded to include more outputs to support up to 6 additional channels of surround sound. While the majority of devices use the familiar 3.5 millimeter miniature phone jack, a number of popular connectors are used in PCs as well as in high-quality external audio equipment that can be connected to a PC using Intel HD Audio.
The audio entertainment industry has been around for many more years than the PC industry and has developed many varied connectors for particular audio needs. Not only could the physical connectors be new to the PC developer, the method of use and how they may be interconnected must be understood.
