[linux-audio-dev] E-MU 1212m Linux drivers

Dear sir,

The HTPC market is growing and Linux has a strong presence here via
software offerings like MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org/). A significant
portion of HTPC users are interested in quality audio such as the one
offered by professionnal sound cards.

Simultaneously there is a drive to make kill all sources of low latency in
the Linux kernel (http://lwn.net/Articles/120797/) to accomodate
professionnal audio needs. Large professionnal Linux audio communities
already exist (http://jackit.sourceforge.net/,
http://www.linuxdj.com/audio/lad/) and the level of interest is high
enough to be seen by some as driving the next major release of the Linux
kernel
(http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;669959914;fp;16;fpid;0 last
§)

Current Linux sound card support is good for mass-market products and
high-end (RME, M-audio...) ones but no one has filled the intermediate
audiophile/semi-pro/home-studio niche yet. The E-MU 1212m

http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?maincategory=754&category=754&product=2209

would seem to be ideally positionned to respond to this demand on the
hardware side, except it has no Linux driver support right now. The Alsa
project (http://www.alsa-project.org/) however has expressed interest on
working on the problem provided they get an hardware sample.

Since Alsa already develops drivers for other Creative sound cards with
Creative support cooperating it would seem natural to expand the current
partnership to the E-MU sound card family. I hope I made the case for such
a partneship clear (I'm no native english speaker) and I'll soon be a
happy Linux E-MU customer.

Kind regards,

-- 
Nicolas Mailhot