Lab 6: AC97-lite PCM Audio

Generated folder: labs/audio/

Lab 6 introduces audio as a stream of samples. Instead of drawing pixels into a framebuffer, you fill an audio buffer with PCM data and ask the runtime to play it.

The analogy with graphics is useful. A framebuffer is memory that eventually becomes an image. An audio buffer is memory that eventually becomes pressure changes in the air. In both cases, the device consumes bytes according to a format, and your program is responsible for producing those bytes consistently.

Concept	Meaning
PCM sample	numeric amplitude at one point in time
sample rate	samples per second
channel count	mono or stereo layout
buffer	mapped memory for samples
byte count	amount the device should consume

Start by learning PCM audio, then complete the implementation tasks, run the checks, and compare the lab model with modern audio stacks.

TIP

Audio bugs are often unit bugs: samples, frames, channels, and bytes are not interchangeable.