[gentoo-user] OT: What does the data stream to a sound card look like?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Gentoo.

It occurred to me the other day that I am clueless about how a sound
card works.  How do the data get into it?  Does the sound card use an
interrupt to ask for more data?

What form do the data take?  Say I feed an mp3 through the card.  Does
the Athlon do the decompression, or does the sound card do it?

Last of all, is there a command line program which can play a CD by
feeding its data into the sound card?

Thanks for any and all enlightenment.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).