[Jack-Devel] low latency . what does it mean? how is it achieved?

Hi all,
I find myself wondering again and again what makes a difference between a
simple AC '97 audio chip and a professional sound card...

I mean the chips are different, sure, but I always hear about "professional
equipement, does not go through the normal application execution path", or
something in those lines.

both ac97 and professional chips go through ALSA (in linux at least). what
gives an edge to the professional chip then? Why can I not run an ac97 with
a latency of 10msec or so (and a low latency kernel) ? I mean, the
processing power of a core i7 should be enough to run audio, right?

I am looking for the big, but also the detailed picture here . Is there
some book / presentation / blog / academic paper that I could read to
figure out what makes the difference?

thank you for your help.

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