CUTTING EDGE.

Computer manufacturers have decided that they need another super-high-fidelity audio standard if they are to get better sound quality over the Internet and on iPod-type players of the future. At Intel's Developer Forum in Beijing, China, 80 companies, including Microsoft, agreed the specification for Intel high-definition audio (IHDA). While compact discs produce sounds at up to 20 kilohertz, which is around the top of the range of human hearing, IHDA will capture sound well beyond human hearing at up to 100 kilohertz.