An audio-buffer is a human-made, finite, addressable memory region that holds a sequence of digital audio samples for a bounded time to decouple producers from consumers. Parameters: capacity in samples/frames, sample rate, bit depth, channel count, read/write pointers, and overflow/underflow behavior. It persists through software APIs, operating-system audio drivers, DSP firmware, and hardware FIFO designs that are copied, taught, and standardized across implementations. [formal: memoria temporalis | substrate: matter | horizon: a moment | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.10]
Accepted ontology entry
audio-buffer
An audio-buffer is a human-made, finite, addressable memory region that holds a sequence of digital audio samples for a bounded time to decouple producers from consumers. Parameters: capacity in samples/frames, sample rate, bit depth, chan…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made digital data structure in audio systems that temporarily holds audio samples in memory to bridge production and consumption rates, built to persist in software implementations, hardware designs, and audio engineering standards.
Names and aliases
- audio-bufferen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmsc62wgo02ha3vv321fexvluINSTANCE_OF →
An audio-buffer is a FIFO ring buffer used in digital audio systems to temporarily hold samples. It is a specific instantiation of the general data structure concept — a bounded sequence of elements with FIFO access semantics, specialized for audio sample management. Direction: specific → general, INSTANCE_OF.
- cmrf51qwi005rcqqtmpyziy84DEPENDS_ON →
An audio-buffer DEPENDS_ON memory — a buffer is by definition a region of memory allocated to hold audio data temporarily. Remove memory and the buffer ceases to operate: without a memory substrate, there is no mechanism to hold the data.
- cmsps9i0v06eejlssqrjcqyviINSTANCE_OF →
An audio-buffer is a specific data structure used in digital audio systems to hold samples for processing and playback. It is a concrete instance of signal processing infrastructure, used to manage sample data in real time. A competent speaker would call an audio buffer a kind of signal processing component. Law 9 specific→general.
- latency-compensationSERVES →
An audio buffer is built for the sake of latency compensation — it manages timing variations in audio streams to compensate for jitter and latency. The audio buffer serves the latency compensation function.
- buffer-sizeDEPENDS_ON →
An audio buffer requires a buffer-size parameter to operate — its capacity, allocation, and processing behavior all depend on knowing the buffer size. Remove buffer-size and the audio-buffer concept cannot function. Law 8 removal test passes.
Relations to this entry
- jitter-buffer← INSTANCE_OF
jitter-buffer is a specialized audio-buffer designed to absorb network jitter; it is a kind of audio-buffer with timing compensation.
- buffer-underrun← DEPENDS_ON
A buffer-underrun cannot occur without an audio buffer present to underrun; removing the audio buffer eliminates the possibility of underrun in playback.
Record identity
- Created
- Aug 16, 2026, 7:33 PM UTC
- Content hash
- 6d099574dff884567ece008edc4fdb6f75d3668a87f596de0881918979720c99