Interview with Len Layton Senior VP at C-Media Electronics

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First off we would like to thank you and Cmedia for doing the interview with us.

Could you tell us about yourself and your company????

[Len] My name is Len Layton and I'm Senior VP at C-Media Electronics, in charge of the North America office, based in Surrey, BC,in the metro area of Vancouver, Canada.

I was formerly a director at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco, and prior to that I was the CEO of Lake Technology Limited in Australia, the company that developed Dolby Headphone technology.

Lake was subsequently acquired by Dolby.

C-Media Electronics is one of the world's leading PC audio chip vendors, founded in 1991 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan.

C-Media is a public company, listed on the Taiwan stock exchange under the code 6237.

Please visit www.cmedia.com.tw.

Can you tell us about some of your products your company makes for the PC???

C-Media sells complete solutions for PCI sound cards, USB audio adapters, USB headphones/headsets and USB speakers, PC VOIP accessories, motherboard audio (AC-97/HD Audio) and now networked audio products (C-Media Wi-Sonic).

What is your companies status with Linux drivers???

[Len] C-Media supports the Linux development community with full datasheets and programming guides so that drivers can be developed by that community.
Almost all of our products currently have Linux driver support.

Will you make Linux drivers like Nvidia,ATI etc????

[Len] C-Media prefers to support the Linux development community by providing information on our products to the developers.
That way, the community gets what they want, when they want it.
C-Media is watching the evolution of the Linux consumer desktop market and if that grew to a significant size we would certainly sit up and take notice.

What should we be on the look out for in new products from you???

[Len] C-Media has a list of new products & technologies just released or soon to be found in shipping products:

1. C-Media Wi-Sonic is the world's first 'wireless sound card' technology.
Look out for a new product from a big name based on C-Media Wi-Sonic to be released in North America in August.

2. C-Media Oxygen HD sound card solution :
This is C-Media's latest super high quality PCI sound card package, which supports very high sampling rates and a complete set of Dolby and DTS consumer electronics technologies.
Several vendors will soon announce product using this new solution set.

3. A new range of PC VOIP solutions :
C-Media has been working to develop a complete line of USB-based VOIP solutions for VOIP handsets, headsets, speaker phones and line adapters all with tight integration with Skype and other VOIP applications.

4. A new USB Audio controller line :
C-Media's USB audio controllers will provide enhanced functionality such as low-cost Dolby Digital Live output from USB.
Look out for a great new Dolby Headphone enabled solution for USB headphones/headsets.

5. The CMI8768+ PCI sound card solution :
this solution is already on the market (e.g. the X-Mystique card you mentioned from HiTec in Korea) and is getting a lot of really positive reviews.
This chipset and driver package is really great value and performs very well in the value.mainstream end of the market.

I'm currently using(reviewing) the X-mystique 7.1 sound card with your chip in it

will you make a Linux driver for this chipset that uses all the features of this card(7.1,Dolby etc)???

This chipset under Linux would be a big bonus for your company and Linux.

I could see it in a MythTV box easily why haven't you marketed to this area (pvr etc).

[Len] We are certainly interested in innovative applications as you mention, and would consider porting over the Dolby Digital Live technology ourselves if the demand was there.
There are licensing issues to be resolved, but we are in discussion with Dolby and some of the ALSA team as well.
In fact, C-Media has been active in introducing Dolby to the Linux development community.
C-Media believes that our best role in the Linux community is to support the innovative people out there and let them develop great products with our hardware.
Our customers, such as HiTec, are very much aware of the situation and will look at these kind of applications also.

Will you make any other sound chips along this line for Linux ???

[Len] We are very interested in making C-Media Wi-Sonic work with Linux, and we will be making some announcements about that soon.

What other areas of sound chip design are you working towards???

[Len] Networked audio is only starting out now, but we think it can grow, so we are doing some work in this area now.

Will you make a usb head phone with this chipset or allow your clients to make Linux drivers???

[Len] We will certainly make the device info available for Linux programmers to build drivers and applications around our USB hardware.
We are working with our partners and customers to bring USB headphones to market right now.
USB headphones can provide some great features and functionality, such as Dolby Headphone and more.

What is your company's view on Linux drivers for your chips??

[Len] As I mentioned above, we are fully supportive of the Linux community, and we have been in close contact with the ALSA team, for example.

Who can make sound cards with the chipset in the Xmystique???

[Len] Any qualified company is welcome to build cards based on any of our solutions.
Please contact our sales@cmediausa.com people for more info on this.

What other features do some of your other chipset s bring to the table???

[Len] A key part of all of C-Media's solutions is the Hydrogen driver technology which integrates a complete set of audio DSP functions, including bass management, speaker compensation, stereo-to-multichannel decoding (Dolby Pro Logic II/IIx etc), headphone processing (Dolby Headphone), EQ, effects and much more.
Also, we provide enhanced interoperability between motherboard, PCI and USB audio.

When will you support Linux with drivers for your chipset???

[Len] As above, we will be watching carefully to decide when to produce our own drivers.
Meanwhile, there are a lot of very smart people out there who seem to be able to write drivers faster than we can!

I know that the XMystique works under Kubuntu but only in 4 channels as of yet.
Will we see drivers from you or would you let your partners build their own Linux drivers???

[Len] Our customers can and do produce their own drivers for many of our products, so HiTec may in fact do that.
You'd better check with them to find out.
We will support our customers and the Linux community to build drivers, as I mentioned above.

I know there is a issue for Dolby Certification and that you do not control.

[Len] I cannot speak for Dolby but actually the specific operating system is not really an issue.
Linux is just another implementation platform, and many Dolby technologies are already implemented in embedded products that use Linux.
Dolby wants to make sure that all consumers get what they pay for when they see a Dolby logo on a product :
that the quality, compatibility and feature set is right.

I thank you for your time and look forward to reading your response.

[Len] You are welcome, thanks for the opportunity.

Created by themoddingden
Last modified 2007-05-27 04:54 AM

Interview with Len Layton Senior VP at C-Media Electronics

Document Actions

Could you tell us about yourself and your company????

Can you tell us about some of your products your company makes for the PC???

What is your companies status with Linux drivers???

Will you make Linux drivers like Nvidia,ATI etc????

What should we be on the look out for in new products from you???

Will you make any other sound chips along this line for Linux ???

What other areas of sound chip design are you working towards???

Will you make a usb head phone with this chipset or allow your clients to make Linux drivers???

What is your company's view on Linux drivers for your chips??

Who can make sound cards with the chipset in the Xmystique???

What other features do some of your other chipset s bring to the table???

When will you support Linux with drivers for your chipset???

I know that the XMystique works under Kubuntu but only in 4 channels as of yet. Will we see drivers from you or would you let your partners build their own Linux drivers???

I know there is a issue for Dolby Certification and that you do not control.

I thank you for your time and look forward to reading your response.

News

I know that the XMystique works under Kubuntu but only in 4 channels as of yet.
Will we see drivers from you or would you let your partners build their own Linux drivers???