Sound chips

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Thu Jun 14 17:58:19 2001

Wasn't the AY3-8910 a speech generator or is that a different gimmick? I seem
to remember having one somewhere in the "pit." IIRC, it uses a 3.12 MHz crystal
in the then-popular application. It is, BTW, (if it's the part I'm thinking of)
easily interfaced via the parallel printer port on nearly any Micro.

Dick


----- Original Message -----
From: "Iggy Drougge" <optimus_at_canit.se>
To: "Classic computing" <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 9:38 PM
Subject: Sound chips


> I'm sitting here in the middle of the night listening to Amstrad CPC music.
> For those of you who don't know, the CPC had an AY-3-8910. The same chip
> could be found on late Spectrum models and apparently also in the Research
> Machines Nimbus. The Atari ST uses a Yamaha clone of the same chip, called
> YM2149. I believe that the MSX uses such a chip, too.
> However, when running a Windows programs called STSOUND, which emulates said
> chip, I saw that the ST drives its blipp-blopp chip at 2 MHz, whereas the
> Spectrum and Amstrad run their chips at lower rates. In what way does this
> really affect the sound? The change is perfectly audible, but what does it do?
> Does it just affect the throughput, replaying the tune faster, or does it
> affect the waveforms, and in that case, in what way?
>
> Another question: The Sega Master System and the BBC use an SN76489 sound
> chip. Both the AY/YM chip and the SN one are "PSG" chips. That means that
> they've got three square wave channels and a noise channel which may (at least
> on the AY/YM) be mixed with the square channels. But are those chips related,
> or are they just chips which happen to use the same techniques?
>
> BTW, I must add that the PSG chips are really pathetic in comparison to the
> SID. I suppose they beat the Atari's Pokey, though. =)
>
> --
> En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.
>
> A conservative is a worshipper of dead radicals.
>
>
Received on Thu Jun 14 2001 - 17:58:19 BST