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Core Audio is a low-level API for dealing with sound in Apple's Mac OS X operating system. It includes an implementation of the cross-platform OpenAL library^[1].

Apple's Core Audio documentation states that "in creating this new architecture on Mac OS X, Apple’s objective in the audio space has been twofold. The primary goal is to deliver a high-quality, superior audio experience for Macintosh users. The second objective reflects a shift in emphasis from developers having to establish their own audio and MIDI protocols in their applications to Apple moving ahead to assume responsibility for these services on the Macintosh platform."

A side effect of Core Audio is the assignment of music playback to a very resilient set of processes. Macs which have seemingly frozen are infamous for continuing to play music without interruption, despite an otherwise total lockup.

History

It was introduced in OS X version 10.0 and significantly improved in version 10.2

See also

• Audio Units

References

1. ^ "Core Audio Overview: OpenAL (Open Audio Library)". Apple Inc. 2007-01-08. http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MusicAudio/Conceptual/CoreAudioOverview/WhatsinCoreAudio/chapter_3_section_9.html. Retrieved 2007-09-16.  

External links

• Apple's Core Audio page
• Apple's Core Audio documentation developer page
• Apple's Audio developer page
• Apple's Core Audio Technologies developer page
• Apple's mailing list for developers using Core Audio and MIDI APIs (C or Java) on Mac OS X
• A simple Cocoa Core Audio demo application for developers