xref: /linux/Documentation/sound/cards/mixart.rst (revision 9095bf25ea08135a5b74875dd0e3eeaddc4218a0)
1*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai==============================================================
2*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiAlsa driver for Digigram miXart8 and miXart8AES/EBU soundcards
3*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai==============================================================
4*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
5*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiDigigram <alsa@digigram.com>
6*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
7*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
8*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiGENERAL
9*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai=======
10*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
11*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiThe miXart8 is a multichannel audio processing and mixing soundcard
12*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaithat has 4 stereo audio inputs and 4 stereo audio outputs.
13*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiThe miXart8AES/EBU is the same with a add-on card that offers further
14*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai4 digital stereo audio inputs and outputs.
15*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiFurthermore the add-on card offers external clock synchronisation
16*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai(AES/EBU, Word Clock, Time Code and Video Synchro)
17*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
18*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiThe mainboard has a PowerPC that offers onboard mpeg encoding and
19*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaidecoding, samplerate conversions and various effects.
20*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
21*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiThe driver don't work properly at all until the certain firmwares
22*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaiare loaded, i.e. no PCM nor mixer devices will appear.
23*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiUse the mixartloader that can be found in the alsa-tools package.
24*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
25*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
26*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiVERSION 0.1.0
27*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai=============
28*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
29*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiOne miXart8 board will be represented as 4 alsa cards, each with 1
30*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaistereo analog capture 'pcm0c' and 1 stereo analog playback 'pcm0p' device.
31*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiWith a miXart8AES/EBU there is in addition 1 stereo digital input
32*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai'pcm1c' and 1 stereo digital output 'pcm1p' per card.
33*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
34*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiFormats
35*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai-------
36*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiU8, S16_LE, S16_BE, S24_3LE, S24_3BE, FLOAT_LE, FLOAT_BE
37*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiSample rates : 8000 - 48000 Hz continuously
38*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
39*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiPlayback
40*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai--------
41*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiFor instance the playback devices are configured to have max. 4
42*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaisubstreams performing hardware mixing. This could be changed to a
43*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaimaximum of 24 substreams if wished.
44*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiMono files will be played on the left and right channel. Each channel
45*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaican be muted for each stream to use 8 analog/digital outputs separately.
46*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
47*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiCapture
48*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai-------
49*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiThere is one substream per capture device. For instance only stereo
50*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaiformats are supported.
51*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
52*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiMixer
53*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai-----
54*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai<Master> and <Master Capture>
55*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai	analog volume control of playback and capture PCM.
56*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai<PCM 0-3> and <PCM Capture>
57*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai	digital volume control of each analog substream.
58*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai<AES 0-3> and <AES Capture>
59*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai	digital volume control of each AES/EBU substream.
60*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai<Monitoring>
61*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai	Loopback from 'pcm0c' to 'pcm0p' with digital volume
62*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai	and mute control.
63*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
64*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiRem : for best audio quality try to keep a 0 attenuation on the PCM
65*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaiand AES volume controls which is set by 219 in the range from 0 to 255
66*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai(about 86% with alsamixer)
67*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
68*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
69*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiNOT YET IMPLEMENTED
70*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai===================
71*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
72*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai- external clock support (AES/EBU, Word Clock, Time Code, Video Sync)
73*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai- MPEG audio formats
74*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai- mono record
75*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai- on-board effects and samplerate conversions
76*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai- linked streams
77*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
78*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
79*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiFIRMWARE
80*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai========
81*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
82*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai[As of 2.6.11, the firmware can be loaded automatically with hotplug
83*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai when CONFIG_FW_LOADER is set.  The mixartloader is necessary only
84*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai for older versions or when you build the driver into kernel.]
85*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
86*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiFor loading the firmware automatically after the module is loaded, use a
87*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaiinstall command.  For example, add the following entry to
88*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai/etc/modprobe.d/mixart.conf for miXart driver:
89*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai::
90*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
91*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai	install snd-mixart /sbin/modprobe --first-time -i snd-mixart && \
92*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai			   /usr/bin/mixartloader
93*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
94*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
95*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai(for 2.2/2.4 kernels, add "post-install snd-mixart /usr/bin/vxloader" to
96*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai/etc/modules.conf, instead.)
97*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
98*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiThe firmware binaries are installed on /usr/share/alsa/firmware
99*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai(or /usr/local/share/alsa/firmware, depending to the prefix option of
100*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaiconfigure).  There will be a miXart.conf file, which define the dsp image
101*3d8e8186STakashi Iwaifiles.
102*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
103*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiThe firmware files are copyright by Digigram SA
104*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
105*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
106*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiCOPYRIGHT
107*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai=========
108*3d8e8186STakashi Iwai
109*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiCopyright (c) 2003 Digigram SA <alsa@digigram.com>
110*3d8e8186STakashi IwaiDistributable under GPL.
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