lp3 Inc. introduced the lp3 is a hardware add-on that allows for playing MP3 files while running other programs, without the slowdown, skipping, or stuttering of a software-only player.
lp3 works directly with WinAMP software and plays MPEG 1 and 2 layers 2 and 3 (.mp2 and .mp3) files of 8 to 256 kbps.