6 channel built in sound on mobo's?

[webraycer]

I am looking at motherboards with built in sound, and some of them say something like this:
"CMI9739A 6-Channel CODEC (PCB 3.0 only)"
How does this work if the sound connections on the mobo are the same as every other mobo's sound -- 1 line in, 1 line out, and one mic plug. Doesn't 6 channel mean you need a plug for front, a plug for rear, etc.?

[Zieglier]

Well, the way it works on my MSI k7n2, is that the line out and microphone are converted to speaker outs, if you change the settings, so I'd assume you lose those. But some mobos come with a little thing that fits in a PCI slot and you hook it into your mobo and that has the connectors you'd need, but I think (for my model) that's only for the boards with a hardware codec. I only have 2 speakers anyway.
Zieg

[score14thebigman]

6 channel means it can handle up to a 5.1 system