Sound

In a press release on the Sound Blaster website, Creative has released plenty of details about the architecture of their new Audigy series of sound cards.
the most important features of the audigy cards are:

Based on the new Audigy processor
four times as powerful as the Live!'s EMU10K1
Sample frequencies and resolutions up to 96 kHz, 24-bit. This gives an S/N ratio of over 100dB
EAX ADVANCED HD support
IEEE 1394 (a.k.a. FireWire) support
a data transfer interface similar to USB, but several times faster (up to 400 Mbps)
Native ASIO drivers for multitrack recording and low latency audio applications

According to the press release, there will initially be five new cards:

Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX - For professional musicians. Features an external drive for connections.
Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum - Features a front panel with connections, like the Live! Platinum series.
Sound Blaster Audigy X-Gamer - The mainstream Audigy card with a focus on gaming.(Americas only)
Sound Blaster Audigy MP3+ - The Audigy card for digial music and MP3. (Americas only)
Sound Blaster Audigy Digital Entertainment - The Audigy card with focus on music listening and home entertainment. (Asia only)

The new bundled PlayCenter 3 will support CD burning and playback of Dolby Digital (AC3) audio, as well as improved connectivity to digital music players.

Terratec

The AudioSystem EWS88 MT from terratec sums up the demands placed on a professional hard-disk recording card:

an adequate number of inputs and outputs that can be expanded as required
clean audio quality and high performance with current hardware and softwaretechnology come together to shatter all previous price/performance ratios.
Eight high-quality analog input and output converters process audio signals (continuously from the hardware to the software) with up to 24 bit and 96 kHz.
The converters - and a full-scale MIDI interface - are housed in a 5 1/4" module that can be mounted in a PC drive bay or installed externally.
The PCI card itself also features connections for S/PDIF devices (coaxial, e.g. for DAT or MiniDisk), as well as an independent SystemSound (Monitor) output for the reproduction of system sounds or software synthesizers without interfering with your favorite hard- disk recording application.

Even cascading the EWS systems under one another is possible without a problem. The number of simultaneously available inputs and outputs can thus be increased by the use of up to three additional systems with EWS-Connect*. An internal connection guarantees the sample-exact synchronization of all the cards at any time.
Of course, the card can also be synchronized with a WordClock signal by the TerraTec EWS ClockWork module.

The AudioSystem EWS88 MT works straight away with all common audio applications under Windows 95/98 and NT. Drivers for these operating systems are included, as well as support for Steinberg's ASIO 2.0 technology, Microsoft's MME and Nemesys GigaSampler GSIF. And here, too, its uniqueness lies in the details, because the drivers are capable of transmitting 24-bit audio data to the audio software used as a 32- bit data stream. This feature noticeably unburdens the main processor, because unlike with the common packed-byte process, the 24-bit data does not have to first be stacked several times before being transmitted through the 32-bit wide bus.
The software provided leads you directly to the goal of your audio dreams: the expansive control panel permits the routing of the different signal sources and allows synchronization and driver settings. Included in the package: EMAGICs LOGIC 4 for creative music processing with the EWS. In addition, there is SEK'D's popular audio editor Samplitude in a specially adapted version - Mastering features like de- noiser, multiband-EQ and hum compressor included!

TerraTec AudioSystem EWS88 MT - the ultimate MultiTracking solution

The following applies to all cards with EWS-Connect:

The cards can be cascaded and synchronized with one another to increase the number of audio channels (I/Os)
All cards can not only be synchronized with one another, but with external equipment as well.
WordClock synchronization can be realized with the optional EWS ClockWork module.
All cards can be used in the same system with EWS64 series cards and can be connected with them.
Synchronization is performed via S/PDIF.
DVD-Player can now send AC3-streams through the EWS88 MT/D digital interface (e.g. to an external Dolby digital decoder).
Some AC3 decoders expect a special bit to be set within the AC3 data stream. This can be enabled by setting to "Non Audio" mode in the ControlPanel.
All PCI cards can share an interrupt (IRQ sharing) and support busmastering.
All PCI cards support ASIO 2.0

The control and mixing software (ControlPanel) has a logical design throughout and can be used intuitively by musicians. When using multiple cards, only one application is required which also displays only those controls relevant to the existing configuration. All cards have a separate SystemSound (Monitor) output (18-bit converter/ up to 48 kHz). This can be used for the playback of system sounds or multimedia applications, for example. Our own, very fast DirectSound driver also permits the use of software synthesizers independently of the hard-disk recording system. All cards offer the option of connecting the audio sides of two CD drives within the computer and mixing them separately. This permits the trouble-free connection of a DVD drive and a CD recorder, for example. All cards feature a hardware-based process for 24-bit recording and playback in which 24-bit audio data is converted to a data stream with a width of 32 bits. This reduces the load on your system's CPU (Pentium, etc.).