[Audio Codec]: Is mixer functionality usually implemented in hardware or software in an audio codec?

By mixer functionality, I mean the mixing of channels to the output etc in an audio coding and decoding. Is this u开发者_开发问答sually implemented in hardware or software in an audio codec?

audio codecs don't handle mixing all they do is decode the audio stream into a format which the rest of the audio system can handle it's up to the audio drivers or subsystem to whether they do mixing in software or hand the task off to hardware