Difference between revisions of "ALSA"

From Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase
Jump to: navigation, search
m
(audio and midi, not only midi)
 
(One intermediate revision by one user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
=Introduction=
 
=Introduction=
'''ALSA''' or '''Advanced Linux Sound Architecture''' is a project, which seeks to provide MIDI functionality to the Linux operating system. ALSA has the following significant features.  
+
'''ALSA''' or '''Advanced Linux Sound Architecture''' is a project, which seeks to provide audio and MIDI functionality to the Linux operating system. ALSA has the following significant features.  
 
==Features==  
 
==Features==  
 
* Effcient support for all soundcards from consumer to professional multichannel audio devices  
 
* Effcient support for all soundcards from consumer to professional multichannel audio devices  
Line 8: Line 8:
 
* Support for the older OSS API.   
 
* Support for the older OSS API.   
 
==ALSA over OSS==
 
==ALSA over OSS==
There are many advantages ALSA has over the older OSS API:  
+
There are many advantages ALSA has over the older (but perhaps not the newer) OSS API:  
  
* kernel-space supports only hardware-level capabilities
 
 
* multi-thread safe design  
 
* multi-thread safe design  
 
* transparent use of plugin architecture to handle format,rate,channel cnt and many other conversions  
 
* transparent use of plugin architecture to handle format,rate,channel cnt and many other conversions  
Line 22: Line 21:
 
* consistent support for multiple instances of the same card  
 
* consistent support for multiple instances of the same card  
 
* linked operations of multiple cards  
 
* linked operations of multiple cards  
* and more...
 
  
 
=Development API=  
 
=Development API=  

Latest revision as of 12:01, 22 February 2015

Introduction

ALSA or Advanced Linux Sound Architecture is a project, which seeks to provide audio and MIDI functionality to the Linux operating system. ALSA has the following significant features.

Features

  • Effcient support for all soundcards from consumer to professional multichannel audio devices
  • Fully modularized sound drivers
  • SMP and thread-safe design
  • alsa-lib in order to simplify the high level API
  • Support for the older OSS API.

ALSA over OSS

There are many advantages ALSA has over the older (but perhaps not the newer) OSS API:

  • multi-thread safe design
  • transparent use of plugin architecture to handle format,rate,channel cnt and many other conversions
  • support for non-interleaved interfaces
  • user-space software mixing (dmix)
  • user-space "loopback/snoop" capabilities
  • merging multiple cards into a single virtual device
  • hiding non-ALSA-drivers behind a consistent user-space API (e.g. IEEE1394 drivers, or JACK)
  • consistent and generic control API for managing hardware controls
  • Flexible mixer architecture to handle modern audio interfaces fully (rather than reducing them to a simplistic device)
  • consistent support for multiple instances of the same card
  • linked operations of multiple cards

Development API

Tutorials

ALSA Library API

ALSA Documentation

External links

  • ALSA wiki a large wiki pertaining to major ALSA related topics.