Editing Softmodem (section)

{{Short description|Modem that uses software to minimize the need for hardware}}
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[[File:WinmodemAndRegularModem.jpg|thumb|A [[Conventional PCI|PCI]] softmodem (left) next to a conventional [[Industry Standard Architecture|ISA]] hardware modem (right)]]

A '''software modem''', commonly referred to as a '''softmodem''', is a [[modem]] with minimal hardware that uses [[software]] running on the host computer, and the computer's resources (especially the [[central processing unit]], [[random access memory]], and sometimes [[Sound card|audio processing]]), in place of the hardware in a conventional modem.

Softmodems are also sometimes called '''winmodems''' due to limited support for platforms other than [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]]. By analogy, a '''linmodem''' is a softmodem that can run on [[Linux]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Walbran |first=Sean |date=2001-02-24 | url=https://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linmodem-HOWTO.html | title=Linmodem-HOWTO |work=[[Linux Documentation Project]] | access-date=2020-06-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.linmodems.org/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050103085641/http://www.linmodems.org/ | title=Linux Winmodem Support | archive-date=2005-01-03 | url-status=live }}</ref>

Softmodems are sometimes used as an example of a [[Real-time computing#Hard|hard real-time]] system. The audio signals to be transmitted must be computed on a tight interval (on the order of every 5 or 10 milliseconds); they cannot be computed in advance, and they cannot be late or the receiving modem will lose synchronization.