event or application query.
The difference (tstamp - trigger_tstamp) defines the elapsed time.
-The ALSA API provides reports two basic pieces of information, avail
+The ALSA API provides two basic pieces of information, avail
and delay, which combined with the trigger and current system
timestamps allow for applications to keep track of the 'fullness' of
the ring buffer and the amount of queued samples.
The analog time is taken at the last stage of the playback, as close
as possible to the actual transducer
-The link time is taken at the output of the SOC/chipset as the samples
+The link time is taken at the output of the SoC/chipset as the samples
are pushed on a link. The link time can be directly measured if
supported in hardware by sample counters or wallclocks (e.g. with
HDAudio 24MHz or PTP clock for networked solutions) or indirectly
estimated (e.g. with the frame counter in USB).
The DMA time is measured using counters - typically the least reliable
-of all measurements due to the bursty natured of DMA transfers.
+of all measurements due to the bursty nature of DMA transfers.
The app time corresponds to the time tracked by an application after
writing in the ring buffer.
-The application can query what the hardware supports, define which
+The application can query the hardware capabilities, define which
audio time it wants reported by selecting the relevant settings in
-audio_tstamp_config fields, get an estimate of the timestamp
+audio_tstamp_config fields, thus get an estimate of the timestamp
accuracy. It can also request the delay-to-analog be included in the
measurement. Direct access to the link time is very interesting on
platforms that provide an embedded DSP; measuring directly the link
Example 1 shows that the timestamp at the DMA level is close to 1ms
ahead of the actual playback time (as a side time this sort of
measurement can help define rewind safeguards). Compensating for the
-DMA-link delay in example 2 helps remove the hardware buffering abut
+DMA-link delay in example 2 helps remove the hardware buffering but
the information is still very jittery, with up to one sample of
error. In example 3 where the timestamps are measured with the link
wallclock, the timestamps show a monotonic behavior and a lower