From alsa-devel-owner@alsa.jcu.cz  Tue Nov 24 10:23:15 1998
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To: alsa-devel@jcu.cz
Cc: kenny@panix.com
From: sharkey@ale.physics.sunysb.edu
Subject: Re: ESS Maestro 2 PCI chipset 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 24 Nov 1998 03:46:47 EST."
             <199811240846.DAA08211@panix2.panix.com> 
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Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 18:13:13 +0900
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> 
> I have just bought a laptop with that sound"card" in it.

Ooh.  New toys are fun.

> I'd like to join
> the Alsa development effort for this device.

Great!

> Is anyone else working on this that might need help?

I'm not in a position to answer this authoritatively, but I'd hazard a guess
that the answer to this is no.  I've never seen this chip mentioned before. 

> As I've done driver programming, but not for soundcards,
> I'd not want to be the *lead* devel,

Well, the ALSA team is pretty small right now.  If you don't take up a
leadership position on this effort, the chances of it going anywhere are
slim to none.

> unless I can get the full docs for the
> chipset (and unless soundcard programming turns out to be as "easy" as making
> the mixer work and getting the the card set up right to get the samples out of
> DMA buffers, which I doubt greatly :-).

Well, luckily, ESS is rather good about documenting their hardware.

I'd start with this:

ftp://ftp.esstech.com.tw/PCIAudio/Maestro2/Document/DSMaestro2.pdf

You might want to poke around a bit there for other docs that might also
be helpful.
 
> I only really need 16-bit PCM audio, for RealPlayer and "xanim", and the mixer
> (of course), soundblaster 16 compatibility is fine. Nothing too fancy or
> elaborate (like wavetables or MIDI).

Then it should be a snap.

Good luck,

Eric


