ESS Technology and I/OMagic have announced an agreement to develop and market a bunch of multichannel sound cards based on ESS's Canyon3D-2 PCI audio accelerator family. I/OMagic intends to bring these cards into retail stores before the end of the second quarter of this year. The Canyon3D-2 family uses Sensaura's True HRTF 3D positional MultiDrive technology for multi-speaker and three-dimensional sound effects and audio placement. Canyon3D-2 is optimized for DirectX 8 and an assortment of gaming APIs including I3DL2, A3D 1.0, EAX 1.0, EAX 2.0, and DirectSound3D. The cards will also provide a Sony/Philips digital interface output and hardware speaker equalization and will be available in a 100-pin low-profile quad flat package. The software drivers for the Canyon3D-2 operate under Windows 95/98/98SE/ME/2000/NT4 OSs.