Sound Blaster 16
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Sound Blaster 16 (CT-2940) |
|
| Date invented | June 1992 |
|---|---|
| Invented by | Creative Technology |
| Connects to | Motherboard via one of:
CD-ROM Drive via:
|
| Common manufacturers | Creative Technology |
Sound Blaster 16 is a series of add-on sound cards from Creative Technology. They are add-on boards for PCs with an ISA slot.
[edit] Overview
Sound Blaster 16 (June 1992), the successor to Sound Blaster Pro, introduced 16-bit digital audio sampling to the Sound Blaster line. SB16 also added an expansion-header for add-on MIDI-daughterboards with sample-based synthesis capabilities complying to the General MIDI standard, a socket for an optional digital signal processor dubbed the Advanced Signal Processor (ASP, or later CSP), and an MPU-401 compatible UART for communication with external MIDI-devices.
The SB16 retained the Yamaha OPL-3 chip for FM synthesis, and was mostly compatible with software written for the older Soundblaster Pro 2.0, and Soundblaster 1.x. The SB16's MPU-401 emulation was limited to UART (dumb) mode only, but this was sufficient for most MIDI software. When the Wave Blaster daughterboard was installed into the SB16, the Waveblaster behaved like a standard MIDI device, accessible to any MPU-401 compatible MIDI software.
The ASP chip added some new features to the Soundblaster line, such as hardware-assisted speech synthesis (through the TextAssist software), QSound audio spatialization technology for digital (PCM) wave playback, and PCM audio compression and decompression. Software needed to be written to leverage its unique abilities, yet the offered capabilities lacked compelling applications. and so the chip was generally ignored by the market.
The Sound Blaster 16 featured the then widely used TEA2025 operational amplifier which, in the configuration Creative had chosen, would allow approximately 700 milliwatts (0.7 watts) per channel when used with a standard pair of unpowered, 4-Ohm multi-media speakers. By setting an onboard jumper, the user could select between line-level output (bypassing the TEA2025) and amplified-output.
Early Intel PCs built after the IBM PC/AT typically only included support for one ATA interface (which controlled up to two ATA devices.) As computer needs grew it became common for a system to need more than 1 ATA interface. With the development of the CD-ROM, many computers could not support it since both devices of the one channel were already used. Several Sound Blaster 16 boards provided an additional IDE interface to computers that had no spare ATA-ports for a CDROM, though the additional drive interface typically only supported one device rather than two, it typically only supported CD ROM drives, and it usually could not support additional hard drives.
The various models and known model numbers:
- Sound Blaster 16 SCSI-2, with a built-in SCSI adapter. ASP socket.
- CT1770, Adaptec AIC-6360L SCSI
- CT1779
- Sound Blaster 16 MCD: "Multi-CD" with all of the old proprietary CD interfaces (no ATAPI). ASP socket.
- CT1230
- CT1230C
- CT1230S
- CT1239
- CT1239C
- CT1239S
- CT1260 (Vibra version)
- CT1750
- CT1759
- CT2230: Only Sony CDROM interface. ASP Socket. Wave Blaster header.
- Sound Blaster 16 Basic Edition: empty ASP socket, Panasonic CD interface, Wave Blaster header.
- Sound Blaster CSP
- CT2740: CDROM interface, empty ASP socket, Wave Blaster header.
- Sound Blaster 16 Value Edition: no ASP socket or Wave Blaster header. A cost-reduced board.
- Vibra 16: a cost-reduced SB16 with Plug and Play, but lacks separate bass and treble control, ASP socket and Wave Blaster header.
- CT4180
- Sound Blaster 16 IDE, with the then-new ATAPI IDE interface for CD-ROMs. ASP socket.
- Sound Blaster 16 ASP',' with the ASP chip included. Includes CD-ROM interface(s).
- CT2290
- Sound Blaster 16 WavEffects: a cheaper and simpler redesign of the Sound Blaster 16, released in 1997, packaged with Creative's WavEffects wavetable software.
- CT4170, w/o CD-ROM interface, single-chip CT2511-SAT also known as Vibra 16XV
- CT4171
- Sound Blaster 16 PCI: it is called a Sound Blaster 16, but it has little in common with the ISA variant. This board is based on the acquired Ensoniq AudioPCI technology.
- CT4740
[edit] Daughterboard bugs
A large number of Sound Blaster 16 cards have a flawed digital sound processor onboard that causes various issues with MIDI daughtercards attached to the Wave Blaster header. The problems include stuck notes, incorrect notes, and various other flaws in MIDI playback. The particular Sound Blaster 16 cards that are affected carry DSP versions 4.11, 4.12, and perhaps newer revisions. Older versions such as 4.05 may not be affected. There is no workaround for this flaw and it occurs with all operating systems.[1][2][3]
[edit] References
- ^ Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO: Sound cards, accessed August 6, 2007.
- ^ Help! Stuck notes with SB16 and SCD-15, comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.tech, March 1995.
- ^ Roland SCD-10, SCD-15 specs (stuck notes), comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.tech, April 1995.
|
|||||
