Sound card: everything you need to know

That our computers emit quality sound through our speakers or headphones is something we take for granted today. This is normal in a world in which we can embrace tile-sized equipment with the palm of our hands, capable of doing much more than making sounds gracefully. But there was a day when that itself was a luxury dependent on a dedicated piece of hardware: the sound card.

Index of contents

A bit of history through the IBM Model 150

Although sound cards predate the snippet of history we are going to tell you now, what we PC users know as a sound card is related to IBM PCs during the 1980s. In 1981 the IBM PC model 150 was released, a team that gained popularity for its price compared to other equipment of the time. This admissible price for many users was born from the elimination of several extras, among which was the sound. IBM PCs in the 1980s had a sound like this:

https://www.profesionalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/speaker_maniacmansion.mp3

That was the scenario in which IBM computer users found themselves in the mid-1980s, when the most widespread means for sound reproduction was through the on-board speaker (referred to as PC speaker or beeper) and interpreted by the processor. A resource-intensive process with questionable results that other home PCs of the time did not have to face when using dedicated audio chips.

However, this was not due to the absence of products, there were already sound cards for the platform at the time, if not due to the lack of support in general-use programs. This was especially noticeable in video games, which did make significant use of sound. It would be at the end of that same decade (1987-88) when more extensive support began to be given to sound cards; and it was also then when its proliferation and subsequent development began until today.

What is a sound card

Thus, expansion cards for our equipment are usually called a sound card, designed to treat the audio inputs and outputs of this equipment. This dedicated piece of hardware uses a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to transform digital signal code into an audible element; Generally, electrical impulses that our speakers can reproduce, as well as the reverse work with the audio inputs (for example, recording sounds from a microphone).

Some of its functions

Sound cards are also in charge of providing voices and audio channels to our equipment, which determine both the number of simultaneous sounds that can be reproduced (voices), as well as the number of outputs through which (channels). The first sound cards for commercial use had around nine voices and a single channel (mono audio), while current cards far exceed that brand and are in various configurations depending on their use.

Over time, sound cards have acquired additional functionalities to serve different tasks, many of them related to improving sound during our gaming sessions, since this has always been one of their most powerful markets.

An example of this could be the well-known Bass Boost of some of these devices to strengthen heavier sounds, or virtualization of 5.1 and 7.1 sound while using headphones. But they have also acquired more trivial functions, such as controlling elements of our equipment such as fans, or RGB synchronized lighting. It all depends on the audience they are aimed at.

Different formats for the same device

Although the most common form in which they are found today is integrated into other components, it is important to clarify that sound cards can appear in various formats. A good example of this we have in current motherboards, which have put a strong emphasis in recent years to improve their audio solutions. Of all these formats, the most widespread are:

Sound integrated into equipment components

Although they have always been present as an audio solution for our teams, the supremacy of integrated solutions began in the 1990s, with the appearance of Intel's AC'97 specification. Currently, the most widespread is the Intel HD audio standard.

Internal sound card

Image: Flickr, Forrestal_PL.

The protagonist of this article. As expansion cards that are, current equipment is usually connected through the PCIe standard, but throughout its existence we have seen them go through all kinds of buses and connectors. As it is a dedicated piece of hardware, it is essential to use its own drivers to get the most out of its functionalities (although Linux-based OSs have their own standard driver), a feature that it shares with the rest of its sisters.

Audio interfaces

Image: Flickr, Nicolás Expósito.

Similar to sound cards, but very focused on professional use and production, audio interfaces are tools dedicated to professional use that usually have better capabilities than their internal namesakes. They usually connect via USB externally to our equipment.

USB sound cards

Another widespread format is the use of USB sound cards. Technically, all sound cards (including audio interfaces) connected to our equipment via USB would fall into this category, but we want to distinguish them from professional solutions and delimit them in their own group. They usually have the same functions as internal sound cards, as well as needing their own drivers to take advantage of their functionalities, despite using the universal connector.

Other formats

Before the standardization of this piece of hardware, it was common to find unique formats for the different equipment for which they were developed, although in this special we have focused on IBM computers because their sound cards are the ones that are most closely related to the current.

Fuller Box, a module to give the sounds of the ZX Spectrum some visa: computerhistory.uk

For the record of some of these models, Sinclair ZX Spectrum computers only had an internal beeper and made use of complete hardware modules that integrated speakers and sound solutions to meet the needs of some of their users.

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A few final words

As you can see, sound cards are a piece that has been accompanying us for many years, time in which it has been changed, adapted and focused on different sectors and users. Today we have only covered the tip of the iceberg of what these cards currently represent, focusing on their role as catalysts for the consumption of mutimedia, leaving aside the professional or production sector, with a much stronger evolution.