Creative Technology Ltd, best known for its Sound Blaster audio system, has been granted a patent for its audio technology that enables wave-table synthesis to be more efficiently implemented on the PCI bus. The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted the patent, US Patent Number 5,698,803, for Creative’s Digital Sampling Instrument Employing Cache Memory. Creative said the result is lower audio system cost, higher overall PC performance and higher sound fidelity when using the patented technology. The technology lets the audio chip use system memory more effectively, and covers methods enabling efficient use of the PCI bus on personal computers, allowing the audio chip to handle complex wave-table support without significant additional memory dedicated only to audio; and without the time consuming need to re-access of system memory, Creative explained. The patent is one in a family of patents rooted in E-mu Systems’ wave-table technology. E-mu Systems is Creative’s digital audio and musical instrument subsidiary and has established itself in the development of wave-table sampling, professional electronic musical instruments and other digital audio products.
