How much of the X-Fi (emu20k1) chip has Creative documented?

[Chris Rankin <rankincj@yahoo.com>]

Hi,

I am thinking about upgrading my Audigy2 sound card, and was looking at the X-Fi. However, the feature matrix for X-Fi cards on the ALSA site only says "PCI". (I assume that also includes PCIe these days.) Given that there is a basic snd-ctxfi driver, it seems likely that this matrix should also include "ANALOGio", and so I was wondering if someone could tell me what the actual matrix entry for the X-Fi cards should be these days, please?

Would the documentation that Creative has released allow any additional features to be implemented in the future? I am obviously hoping at least for feature parity with the Audigy2, i.e. multi-voiced hardware mixing. That "crystalizer" would seem to be one of the cards main selling points, too. However, if the driver is "feature complete" as far as Creative's documentation goes, then one of the Xonar cards would seem better value for money.

Thanks for any assistance,
Cheers,
Chris