Zii has taken us by surprise for sure. It's not affiliated with life-science, it's certainly not a PC audio processor. It's a multi-core processor the size of a postage stamp, that its makers claim to possess raw computational power to rival that of a supercomputer. Zii stands for "Zen Two" or Z II, it is a combination of the ZMS-05 processor, a system board, middleware and an optimised OS. Soon to be announced at CES, Zii might well turn out to be Creative's most important product, even more so than SoundBlaster. VR-Zone provided some details ahead of Creative's announcement.

Late December last year, Creative started a teaser website for the company's "new direction", the Zii. Back then it was courteous enough to give us a clue about what it was about and how big a deal it was, with its rather bold tag-line "Everything you know is about to change". Today Creative dispatched emails to all those who registered for updates on the website, revealing a lot more about Zii, and we can tell from what's given, that Creative has embarked upon something big, which makes its digital audio product lineup look irrelevant to the matter.

The Zii, according to Creative, is inspired from nature's building block of life, the stem cell. A stem cell is a basic cellular unit found in multi-cellular organisms that holds the potential to divide and differentiate into the many different kinds of cells an life-forms have. Here's a revelation: Creative claims to have devised a stem cell-like silicon that can "grow and multiply into different solutions and eco-systems", it can be seen as something parallel to the process in which life functions, only that it's going to be silicon doing it. Creative goes on to add "With an investment that spans over 10 years, over a billion dollars and over 10,000 man-years, the world is poised to experience a breakthrough that will better lives beyond our imagination." Given the state the world economy is in, Creative states that the technology is recession-friendly and will in-turn unlock countless business opportunities based around the technology and its expansion. Creative will be throwing a lot more things out of the box at the upcoming CES event. The Matrix era of artificial life is beginning not to sound too much of an imagination.

Known for decades as a company that specialises in digital entertainment products, Creative is up to something new. The company is working on what it calls "Stemcell Computing". It is reportedly making a processing chip or architecture called Zii. A teaser micro-site of the same has been launched. The Zii processing chip is expected to give Creative the new direction the company has been striving for, with announcements of products incorporating the Stemcell Computing technology being expected at the upcoming CES event. Not much is known about Creative's plans at this point in time. The teaser goes with the tag-line "Everything you know is about to change", so we are expecting something big, or significant at least.

Creative updated drivers for its Sound Blaster X-Fi series sound cards to version 2.18.0008. The driver covers all X-Fi series sound cards based on the CA-20K series audio processors, that includes the X-Fi Titanium Series, Xtreme Gamer Series, Xtreme Music, Platinum and Elite Pro. The new drivers add to the capabilities of the sound card in a Windows Vista environment, notably Dolby Digital and DTS decode for certain models, a feature that was lost in the transit between Windows XP and Vista. DVD-Audio playback for models which included the MediaSource DVD-Audio Player application has been re-established as a feature in 32-bit Windows Vista.

Fixes relating to issues such as audio popping/crackling during AC-3, PCM or Dolby Digital through digital outputs of the card, have been brought about. The driver also fixes erratic CMSS-3D behaviour in the Audio Creation mode. The driver can be downloaded from Creative Worldwide Support website.

Auzentech has unveiled the X-Fi Forte PCI-Express sound card. The Auzen X-Fi Forte 7.1 is the first Low Profile native PCI express audio card that Auzentech has designed especially for gamers and audiophiles. Compared to the X-Fi chipset reference design, the Auzen X-Fi Forte 7.1 has improved circuitry and components.
"A large percentage of our customers are both gamers and audiophiles," said Stephane Bae, president of Auzentech, Inc. "Increasingly, they are requesting a low-profile sound card with 'mind-blowing' audio playback for music, movies, and games. We created the Auzen X-Fi Forte with these customers in mind."

Auzentech, an exclusive Creative partner, informed recently that it has revised the release date for its Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD soundcard to the last week of January 2009. The Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD soundcard was originally scheduled for release sometime in September or October of 2008.
"I regret delaying the product release," said Stephane Bae, president of Auzentech, Inc. "The decision came suddenly due to strategic marketing changes by our partners. These partners have been instrumental in making the Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD an industry-supported audio solution. When it is released at the end of January, it will include the necessary software to access the advanced HD capabilities of the soundcard-and much of that software comes from our partners."
The Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD is a premium sound card, that will compete well with ASUSTeK's recently launched Xonar Essence STX. When released it will offer PCI-e x1 interface, Creative's 20K2 sound core, 64MB X-RAM, HDMI 1.3a output and some of the latest audio technologies in the market, such as Dolby Digital Live, DTS Connect, ASIO 2.0 and EAX 5.0. The card is also said to be able to output multichannel audio from Blu-ray discs with no downsampling, and play high bit-rate audio such as Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream without altering the original sound. For more information, please visit Auzentech.

Creative staff has announced that it is ready with its first release of drivers for Sound Blaster X-Fi sound cards, that supports 32-bit Linux. The driver comes in the form of a source tar-ball. The drivers allow seemless operation over ALSA. Updates to the x86_64 drivers are provided as well. This driver applies to all X-Fi series sound cards based on the CA-20K series audio processor. Its known issues include lack of functionality for external I/O modules, and that there are no Linux versions of the applications Creative bundles in its Driver CDs, which work under Windows, as of now.

To download the drivers, select your compatible Sound Blaster X-Fi model from this page and choose Linux under the manual selection drop-down to list Linux drivers.

Creative has expanded its Sound Blaster (SB) X-Fi Lineup with two new entries. The Titanium series marked Creative's entry into true PCI-Express hardware-accelerated audio. The Titanium series cards are said to have a tweaked CA-20K audio processing core that has native PCI-Express interconnects to the rest of the system. It is also said to run a lot cooler than its older variant featured in some of the PCI versions of Sound Blaster X-Fi.

First up, is SB X-Fi Titanium. This vanilla version of the card features the same PCB as the other variants. It is best put as the successor to X-Fi Xtreme Gamer. It has the same audio processor, DAC and OPAMP circuit, just that the X-RAM buffer isn't provided. In its place, a low-capacity memory chip that keeps the CA-20K operational is present. That shouldn't in any way affect its function or quality, except that the X-RAM feature which will be lacking. The card lacks an EMI shield as well. This card has been put on sale for weeks now, on popular etailers such as Newegg. It carries a price tag of around US $100.

Next is the card we are interested in, the card is SB X-Fi Titanium Professional Audio. In many respects, the card is close to being identical to the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional. The card lacks the Fatal1ty branding, perhaps to give it an audiophile card's look. It bundles 3.5mm to RCA converter cables. The software bundle includes Creative Media Toolbox, a content creation software kit that takes advantage of the card's Audio Creation Mode. Other than that, nothing else advertised seems to differentiate it from the Fatal1ty card. It has been published on Creative's Hong Kong website here, and is priced at approximately US $154.

Creative today announced the Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook ExpressCard. As the name suggests, device is a sound card for notebooks with ExpressCard slots. The X-Fi Notebook comes in two modules, the card itself and the portion that protrudes outside the notebook. It provides wired as well as wired interfaces. The card can transmit audio to wireless speakers. Features that are usual to the X-Fi series, such as CMSS-3D and 24-bit Crystalizer aling with EAX Advanced HD positional audio. The package includes a pair of earphones with microphone attached.

Additionally, the card provides theater DSPs such as Dolby Digital and DTS Surround through PowerDVD. Would you want to use this on a gaming notebook as an audio enhancement? While the card does provide features such as CMSS-3D and EAX Advanced HD, the audio processing itself isn't native. The card doesn't feature the CA-20K series audio processor, so there isn't a performance enhancement on offer. The card is priced at US $90. More details are provided on the product page.

Discrete sound cards aren't the essential PC component they used to be about a decade ago. Several forces such as Microsoft, Intel and upcoming semiconductor companies in Taiwan such as Realtek had then envisioned a day when the required processing power for audio would be completely at the disposal of the CPU, and that audio processing would have a very insignificant impact on CPU performance. Intel made the standards (such as AC'97, Azalia HD), Microsoft made the common software driver model, while semiconductor companies sold CODEC chips to motherboard manufacturers like pieces of toffee.

Today's discrete audio finds its way to an audiophiles, HTPC users willing to splurge, and enthusiasts. So features are all that matter. Creative recently released the X-Fi Titanium series of sound cards that offer native PCI-Express support while running a tweaked CA-20K series audio processor. They've done quite a bit, in propagating the "Xtreme Fidelity" technology beyond their own sound cards. Currently Auzentech, MSI and ASUS hold agreements with Creative to launch PC audio products, while Creative itself makes headphones with the X-Fi DSP, iPod docks and external sound cards. They could well be heading towards another sound card release, and as early as this Wednesday. Indications are, that this could well be an external sound device. Creative has already released two external cards based on the X-Fi technology, though not much is known about this device.

Creative, a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products, announces the Creative GigaWorks T3 speaker system. Designed to deliver the ultimate music listening experience, the Creative GigaWorks T3 combines innovative design, the best audio components and state-of-the-art technologies to elevate users' audio listening experience to an entirely new level of excellence.

Creative on Friday announced the introduction of Sound Blaster X-Fi Go!, a USB 2.0 flash device with 1GB of built-in memory that also serves the role of a fully functional sound blaster. Sporting a sleek and distinctive black finish, the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! is incredibly lightweight (less than 20g) and compact. It is compatible with USB 2.0 computer devices and features many of the sound enhancements found in other X-Fi sound cards, like X-Fi Crystalizer that restores details lost during compression of MP3 music or movie files and X-Fi CMSS-3D that expands the stereo signal into virtual surround over 5.1 speakers or headphones. The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! also supports Creative EAX Advanced HD 4.0 which provides a better and more realistic gaming experience for users. The 1GB onboard memory is there to store the essential software for instant simple installation on any notebook or desktop PC without the need of a CD, you just plug in the X-Fi Go! and enjoy it. The included software has drivers for both Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista as well as some bonus software that includes Creative Karaoke Player, Creative Mediasource 5/Organizer and Creative WaveStudio. The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! will be available in Singapore at the end of August 2008 at a suggested retail price of $79.00.

A long time has passed since Creative last released any new Vista drivers for its X-Fi audio cards. Usually new drivers are being published every single day, and they don't concern us much, but in Creative's case a new driver release can be considered a break-through. It goes even worse, because when we talk about new Creative drivers for Windows Vista we expect something new to be added, but in reward we receive only features that are supposed to work by default with this concrete product. A perfect example for my words is the brand new Windows Vista 2.18.0004 driver for Creative X-Fi cards released today. It is now here to re-establish the hardware Dolby Digital, DTS decode and DVD-Audio playback functions, that were available in Windows XP for more than two years. If you own a Creative X-Fi card just like me and you use it under Windows Vista 32/64-bit, please follow this link to download Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series Driver 2.18.0004.

Driver modder Daniel Kawakami or better known as Creative's Daniel_K is backing off his deal with providing modded software for all Creative sound cards for free. After receiving second warning mail from Creative threatening him with legal actions, he is finally "gone for good". He has posted a message over at the Creative forums informing everyone for his decission. Leave your thoughts here, and tell us what do you think.

Daniel KawakamiI've received another cease and desist e-mail.

I'm done with Creative, enough is enough.

Don't even bother asking me for the files.

Creative, a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products, today announces the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series and PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series sound cards, unleashing the full power of Creative X-Fi hardware audio processing for PCI Express-based PCs.

Creative has received much criticism for charging owners of Audigy sound cards for its ALchemy software, which offers improved audio support for certain games under Windows Vista. However, a modder by the name of Daniel Kawakami has managed to build hybrid drivers using a combination of XP and Vista files as well bypassing certain driver checks to enable several features including:

• Dolby/DTS decoding
• CMSS, CMSS2 and Stereo Surround (originally only CMSS was available, but this setting also affects ALchemy/OpenAL and Kawakami notes that it's thus particularly useful)
• Advanced EQ and Special FX presets
• DVD Audio
• Hardware MIDI synthesizer (Kawakami says he wrote a small utility that automatically detects and changes the default Vista MIDI Synth during driver install or can change it later using its GUI. Some media players let you choose the MIDI synthesizer)
• Equalizer
• WaveRT

You can read some more complete details of his work at Custom PC and download the files from here. The modded driver was originally uploaded to Creative's forums, although the company responded in a somewhat heavy handed manner, as you can see in this thread.

PC sound card maker Creative Labs said in a e-mail message today that rival hardware manufacturer ASUS is misleading its customers by claiming that new drivers for ASUS sound cards support EAX 3,4 and 5, a set of environmental enhancements for sound in games. Responding to an announcement by ASUS that newly released drivers for its Xonar line of sound cards support EAX, Creative communications VP Phil O'Shaughnessy said that the drivers effectively trick games into outputting EAX-capable sound, but they don't actually fully support it. "There are a small number of PC game titles that specifically query the audio device on the system to see if EAX 5 is available before they will attempt to render more than 64 3D simultaneous audio voices," O'Shaughnessy said. "The new ASUS drivers are falsely reporting EAX 5 capabilities in order to get these games to output 3D audio on ASUS sound cards. ASUS customers are not getting a genuine EAX Advanced HD experience with this driver update. Furthermore, the several hundred games that support EAX 3 or EAX 4 for delivering in-game effects will not provide those effects from ASUS sound cards." he added. ASUS representatives are still awaited to comment on the story.

Recommended for all Creative X-Fi owners who use Windows Vista OS, a new ALchemy driver has been released on Christmas Eve. This download is an application for Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series of audio devices that restores 3D audio and EAX effects for certain DirectSound3D games in Windows Vista. Without this, most DirectSound3D games will be reduced to stereo output without any EAX effects.

DOWNLOAD

Creative has released some new X-Fi drivers for Windows Vista 32/64-bit. This download supports the following audio devices only: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic, X-Fi XtremeGamer, X-Fi Platinum, X-Fi Fatal1ty, X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro, X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series and X-Fi Elite Pro. Do not install this driver for Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio. The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series Vista Driver 2.15.0004 fixes:

• Resolves an issue for Windows Vista 64-bit systems with 4GB RAM
• Resolves loud speaker noise when restarting your computer
• Resolves an issue that causes OpenAL games not to respond

DOWNLOAD

Creative has introduced three new 2.0 systems to its line-up. The leader of the pack is the GigaWorks HD50 which, besides featuring BasXPort technology, boasts titanium super tweeters for smooth playback. Standing at only 14.1cm, Creative GigaWorks HD50 claims to offer both power and incredible sound like no other 2.0 system. Next in the line is the already known GigaWorks T40, which features glass fibre cone drivers and a cloth design that provides better resistance to humidity and temperature changes. Last but not least, is the Inspire T10 for perfectly balanced audio performance. All three systems are set to be soon available in Singapore and on Creative's online store. The GigaWorks HD50 and GigaWorks T40 systems are priced at $149.99 while the Inspire T10 will cost $49.99.

Creative Technology today announced the PCI Express (PCIe) Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio card that is designed to make music and movies sound way better. It features the award-winning X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio technologies which enhance audio playback and deliver virtual surround sound effects. The Creative PCIe Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio will be available in late November at a suggested retail price of US$69.99.

Creative unveiled today details for its latest player, the Creative ZEN. Here are some of the main ZEN features:

• Capacity: 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB
• 2.5" display with 16.7 million colors (320 x 240)
• SD Expansion Slot (possible support for SDHC)
• Audio: MP3, WMA (and WMA-DRM), AAC (supports iTunes Plus tracks) and Audible
• Video: WMV, Divx, Xvid, MJPEG, and TIVO to Go
• FM tuner and Voice Recorder
• Battery Life: 25 hours of Audio, 5 hours for Video
• Dimensions: 55 x 83 x 11.3mm (65g)
• Pricing: $149, $199, $299 respectively

The ZEN will officially debut at IFA starting August 31st, and should be released sometime in September. You can pre-order them right now from Amazon.com. Special thanks to our reader DanielF50 for this news story.

Creative released a new Beta Driver for all SoundBlaster Audigy and X-Fi series cards addressing an OpenAL problem which occurs in various systems. This beta is only recommended for those who are experiencing problems with their current audio drivers. Creative doesn't specify for what OS this driver is and so it may be a universal one.

Beta Driver

It seems that Creative Labs is now selling ALchemy Audigy Edition for $9.99 (USD). As you may know the ALchemy project enables DirectSound3D audio to be processed by your Sound Blaster Audigy and deliver EAX effects in Microsoft Windows Vista. Without Creative ALchemy, most DirectSound games running in Vista will be reduced to stereo output without any EAX effects. This project is available freely for Creative X-Fi owners. For unknown reasons Creative Labs has decided to sell this wrapper to Audigy owners. Here's the link where you have to buy the software in order to use EAX effects in Vista with your "old" Creative Audigy Series/Audigy 2/Audigy 2 ZS/Audigy 2 ZS notebook or Audigy 4 sound blaster.

Creative has finally released full Vista-compatible drivers for some of its low-end sound cards. The new 1.04.0076 drivers are available for both 32-bit (63.39 MB) and 64-bit (63.39 MB) versions of Windows Vista, with support for Audigy Value, Audigy SE, Audigy LS, and Live! 24-bit sound cards. The new 1.04.0076 driver pack includes Creative's audio console, device control, EAX console and speaker settings control panels. Users can also adjust speaker configurations, audio output quality, S/PDIF sampling rate, sound effects, and Creative multi-speaker surround settings.