BSD cx88 Wiki

Welcome to the FreeBSD cx88 Wiki

This is a wiki for info on the new "cx88" video capture driver for FreeBSD.

Overview

cx88 is a package that provides kernel drivers and a simple capture application for video/audio capture cards based on the Conexant CX2388x family of PCI bridge chips.

What the heck is a CX2388x?

The Conexant CX2388x is a series of what I informally call "multimedia bridge" chips. A multimedia bridge chip is responsible for providing an interface between a host data bus (e.g. PCI, PCI-express, USB, etc.) and a "frontend" for receiving audio or video signals. Frontends typically consist of a series of highly specialized pieces of silicon, such as RF tuner chips or digital TV demodulator chips. The bridge chip must provide a bus (typically I2C) for controlling frontend devices and expose functions for controlling the transfer of audio/video data across the host bus. Depending on the application, the bridge chip may also expose specialized functions for controlling the reception and decoding of the A/V signals.

Supported Chips

The CX2388x family contains several iterations. The cx88 kernel drivers currently generically support any capture card based on the CX23880/1/2/3 flavors. Support for the newer CX23885 PCI-express chip is currently under investigation.

Email: <jason.harmening@gmail.com>