DirectX
DirectX is a component of the Microsoft windows operating system (95/98/2000/Me) and the Windows Explorer internet browser. It is an Application Program Interface (API) and is a group of drivers used for accelerating hardware processing of audio signals, which in turn reduces latency. It was developed to allow several types of multimedia software applications and hardware to operate on a common platform thus it functions as a uniform interface.
This way software applications run on the common DirectX platform / drivers (bypassing the Windows interface) regardless of what type of computer hardware is used. Similarly, software developers only have to write an application to be compatible with DirectX rather than the hardware. DirectX will also run a diagnostic of the hardware and determine the best parameters of the software application for optimum performance. The audio components of DirectX are DirectSound, DirectMusic and DirectShow. By developing and coding the Driver application to be compatible with DirectSound the interface is independent of the actual hardware device.
The advantage for audio-related applications (host and plug-ins) is improved hardware acceleration, direct access to the sound device and lower latency. The latest version of DirectX is supported on Windows95 through Me. WindowsNT 4.0 will only support DirectX 3.0a. Plug-in applications or sound production applications that are written for/supported by DirectX are sometimes known as DXi (DirectX Instruments).