I need your help!

For the great, great DOSBox Wiki, I am looking for a definition of ALSA. It does not have to be much (just 3-5 lines), and it do not have to be 100% correct either.

As an example, here is the entry for SDL:

SDL - (Simple DirectMedia Layer) - is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D video framebuffer.

How would the entry for ALSA look like? Either post your answer here, or edit the the ALSA page yourself.