Sound chip

A sound chip is an integrated circuit (i.e. "chip") designed to produce sound (see chiptune). It might be doing this through digital, analog or mixed-mode electronics. Sound chips normally contain things like oscillators, envelope controllers, samplers, filters and amplifiers.

Programmable Sound Generators (PSG)

• Atari
  • Atari TIA, combined sound and graphics chip, used in Atari 2600 and Atari 7800.
  • Atari POKEY, used in Atari 8-bit computers, Atari 5200, and certain Atari 7800 cartridges.
  • Atari AMY, intended for the 65XEM, but never released.

• General Instrument
  • General Instrument AY-3-8910 (same as Yamaha YM2149)
• Hudson Soft
  • Hudson Soft HuC6280, used in TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine.
• MOS Technology
  • MOS Technology 6560/6561 "VIC", used in Commodore VIC-20.
  • MOS Technology 6581/8580 "SID", used in Commodore 64 and Commodore 128.
  • MOS Technology 7360/8360 "TED", used in Commodore 16 and Commodore Plus/4.
• Philips
  • Philips SAA 1099, used in SAM Coupé.
• Ricoh
  • Ricoh 2A03/2A07, used in Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom. (Hardware Expandable.)
    • Konami
      • Konami VRC6, used in certain Famicom cartridges.
      • Konami VRC7, used in certain Famicom cartridges.
    • Namco
      • Namco N106, used in certain Famicom cartridges.
    • Sunsoft
      • Sunsoft 5B, used in certain Famicom cartridges.
• Sharp
  • Sharp LR35902 "GB-Z80", used in Game Boy.
• Texas Instruments
  • Texas Instruments SN76477
  • Texas Instruments SN76489 "DCSG", used in Sega SG-1000, BBC Micro, and Texas Instruments TI-99/4a.
  • Texas Instruments SN76489A "DCSG", used in ColecoVision, Sega Master System, Sega Pico, Sega Game Gear, and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
  • Texas Instruments SN76496, used in Tandy 1000.
• Yamaha
  • Yamaha YM2149, used in the Atari ST, MSX, Intellivision, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum computers (same as General Instrument AY-3-8910)
  • Yamaha Y3439-F, used in the Atari Falcon, Atari STBook
  • Yamaha Y8950, (a.k.a. MSX-AUDIO, very similar to Yamaha YM3526) used in MSX-Audio cartridges for MSX: Panasonic FS-CA1, Toshiba HX-MU900 and Philips NMS-1205

Frequency modulation synthesis (FM synth)

• Yamaha
  • Yamaha YM2413 (a.k.a. OPLL), used in MSX in MSX Music cartridges like the FM-PAC and internally in several Japanese models by Panasonic, Sony and Sanyo; also used in Sega Mark III (Japanese version of Master System)
  • Yamaha YM2151 (a.k.a. OPM), used in Sharp X68000 and the Yamaha SFG-01 and SFG-05 FM Sound Synthesizer Unit cartridges for MSX
  • Yamaha YM2203 (a.k.a. OPN), used in PC-88 and PC-98
  • Yamaha YM2608 (a.k.a. OPNA), used in PC-88 and PC-98
  • Yamaha YM2610 (a.k.a. OPNB), used in SNK Neo Geo
  • Yamaha YM2612 (a.k.a. OPN2), used in Sega Mega Drive / Genesis
  • Yamaha YM3526 (a.k.a. OPL)
  • Yamaha YM3812 (a.k.a. OPL2), used in AdLib and early Sound Blaster sound cards
  • Yamaha YMF262 (a.k.a. OPL3), used in Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 and later cards
  • Yamaha YMF278 (a.k.a. OPL4), used in Moonsound cartridge for MSX
  • Yamaha YMF288 (a.k.a. OPN3), used in PC-98
  • Yamaha YMF7xx (Embedded audio chipset in some laptops and soundcards)
  • Yamaha YMU786 (a.k.a. MA-7), used in mobile phones to process various audio sources; sound effect, 3D audio effect, sound mixer, ringtone generation, etc.

Pulse-code modulation (PCM, sample-based)

• MOS Technology 8364 "Paula"
• Sony SPC700
• National Semiconductor LMC 1992
• Ricoh RF5c68

See also

• Sound card

External links

• Sound generators of the 1980s home computers - Has a list of chips, pictures, datasheets, etc.