Yamaha has announced its XG-Quad digital sound card, featuring 4-channel sound, with 64 XG voices in hardware.

Software providing 256 XG voices is available as an option. The board provides either optical or coax S/PDIF I/O. Retail availability will be announced at a later time.

The new sound card uses Yamaha's YMF744 chip and supports the Environmental Audio Extensions open standard. The signal to noise ration is greater than 90 dB.

The card features 4-channel surround sound, S/PDIF output that can send Dolby Digital encoded digital audio data, 3-D sound technology by Sensaura, and full duplex hardware for telephony functions.

Production quantities will become available for OEMs later this month. Yamaha Systems Technology Inc. has details on its web site, at www.yamahayst.com .