Linux Journal: Linux Audio Development: A Report from Karlsruhe

“Historically, the basic Linux sound system has been built on an
API known most recently as OSS/Free. As of the 2.5 development
series, the Linux kernel now officially deprecates the aging
OSS/Free API and has replaced it with the Advanced Linux Sound
Architecture (ALSA). ALSA provides a backwards-compatible layer for
accommodating older applications designed for OSS/Free. But, its
advanced API includes more interesting features, such as support
for sound hardware from consumer-level sound cards to
professional-grade digital audio boards, a fully modularized driver
design, safe operation in SMP and threaded programming
environments, and a user-space library (libasound) to simplify
applications programming.

“Conference participants included ALSA luminaries Jaroslav
Kysela (founder and team leader), Takashi Iwai, Paul Davis, Frank
van de Pol and Matthias Nagorni. Topic presentations included an
in-depth analysis of the ALSA driver design, ALSA development in
historical and technical perspective, an exposition of the JACK
low-latency audio server/connector, details of the ALSA sequencer
API and a demonstration of various ALSA-aware applications and
utilities. As might be expected in this session, the level of
discussion was quite technical at times, but all presentations were
well-prepared and clearly delivered…”

Complete
Story