Is there any possibility to plug in PC's SoundBlaster to Sprinter? Would it work?

Yes. Sprinter has two ISA-8 slots. You can plug any ISA-8 devices like modem, soundcard, netcard etc. But ISA-8 only. ISA-16 would not work here.
Also it will require special program (driver) which work with your card.
Today, our software use Sprinter's Sound System only.

Is it complex to write a driver for SoundBlaster?
Of course somebody would have to write a tracker for it, but it is another story. :)

I think Sprinter's sound is very good. Why do you want to use SB?

> Is it complex to write a driver for SoundBlaster?

It's not a hard problem. But we spend a lot of time for another tasks.
It just priorities policy.

> Of course somebody would have to write a tracker for it, but it is another story. :)

I think that tracker which will work with Sprinter's Sound is more required.

>I think that tracker which will work with Sprinter's Sound is
>more required.

A tracker with 2 channels? Ha-ha, don't get me wrong: Sprinter is the best machine in the world, but its sound is more than bad. 2chn is not enought even for games. Tracker will be resonable thing to make when Sprinter has at least 3 chn-sound, don't you think?

>I think that tracker which will work with Sprinter's Sound is
>more required.

A tracker with 2 channels? Ha-ha, don't get me wrong: Sprinter is the best machine in the world, but its sound is more than bad. 2chn is not enought even for games. Tracker will be resonable thing to make when Sprinter has at least 3 chn-sound, don't you think?

:) Sprinter is a flexible machine.
And It can be implemented much more channels.
Also we are planned to implement hardware sound features for mixing, resampling, multiplication, etc.

Would it be possible to have a library of PLD routines like math acceleration, AY sound, graphics accelerator and so on that you could combine as you self wanted? That would give programmers more choice and power for the application they wanted to make.

Just a random thought. The sprinter is awesome as it is.

We are thinking for it. So, in any case PLD chip have to load as solid data array. I.e. it can't reload part of PLD.
But we may to compile different PLD-modules which will consist different combinations of hardware features.
Also we are planned to release specification for hardware developers. And describe there how to make PLD-module yourself.
May be some source codes for it will be published too.

> A tracker with 2 channels? Ha-ha

Do you know that channels may be software, not hardware?
Is software mixer known for you? All PC trackers have ONLY software channels and mono/stereo hardware output. It's good way for Sprinter.

Alexander Shabarshin (shaos@mail.ru)
NedoPC Project

Deviants used software mixer in the demo of "Thunder". They tested three and two channels with animated graphics. The test with two channels had the best result for game speed. But it is too poor sound for good game, certainly.
So, we should create hardware mixer in PLD in future.

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>Is software mixer known for you?

hardware mixing is always better than software. Is it known for you?

> hardware mixing is always better than software. Is it known for you?

Do you mean analog or digital hardware mixing?
Hi-End analog devices are better, but for thousands bucks cost...


Alexander Shabarshin (shaos@mail.ru)
NedoPC Project

By the way, how many channels you can achieve with software mixing? How many channels you can multiply from two?

> By the way, how many channels you can achieve with software mixing?

4,6,8,16...
we have stereo output, so "logic" channels will add to "physical" channels

> How many channels you can multiply from two?
Do you mean Dolby Surround ???


Alexander Shabarshin (shaos@mail.ru)
NedoPC Project

I mean which number of chnls is ok for still good quality of sound and ok for cpu. (not to overload it)

> I mean which number of chnls is ok for still good quality of sound

depend of another tasks that cpu must do
in Thunder game with excellent graphics only 2 channels used (see above)
but it dosn't mean that channels can't be more for less quality graphics

Alexander Shabarshin (shaos@mail.ru)
NedoPC Project

Well, are there any 8bit ISA sound cards still available outside museums? i.e. is it still worth the effort? And BTW is there a list of 8bit ISA interface cards that come to question for use with the Sprinter?

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by Dementhor on 2002/12/25 18:58.</EM></FONT></P>

The range of "sb-16 compatible" cards all support 8 bit operation in order to facilitate compatibility with older 8 bit soundblaster software. A crummy old vibra16 should be fairly easy to find. I've begun to doubt that there is any advantage to be had, though. The built-in sprinter 16 bit stereo sound is probably better.

Of course, you could get an advantage using an external sound card if irq and dma were available on the sprinter isa port. I don't know if they are, but i've gotten the impression that only the i/o ports on the cards can be utilized.

Well, think that to write Tacker for original sprinter's sound card - that is silly! Good coder will write it for the external sound driver as a standale-one driver... Guys, don't spread your mights too much - better rework OS and GUI before writing something global - or another way you'll get another dead spectrum! Think before make something twice! =)

If the way i understand it is correct, then using the sprinter sound demands that you count the number of cpu cycles executed to correctly time the writes to the sprinter sound hardware port. If this the case, then writing a general driver for it might be hard, no matter what the operating system looks like. The approach of writing a dedicated tracker for the sprinter sound system might be the only practical solution in this case.

A general sound driver wouldn't be impossible to write. The hard part would be getting the operating system and applications to respect the timing requirements of the driver. Since vsync irq is too slow to correctly time writes to the sound hardware port (correct me if i'm wrong) you would have to find another way of timing the whole thing. Most likely the only solution is more cycle counting.

Then again, what the hell do i know? =)

Talking about number of channells and CPU powers...
I don't force you to connect real GeneralSound into the Sprinter, as it might be difficult, don't know...
But I assume it's still possible to make a good MOD (4chnls) player mode, compatible with GS standard, isnt' it?
I mean: I load a game with GS music on Sprinter, then I choose GS mode - and I can hear the MOD music *without* GS on the board. Is it possible?
AND - is it possible *without* cracking all these games and other progs??? Kinda emulation would be really great solution.

I fully support your thought about this "kinda" of GS emulation. If it's possible, then people won't worry about fixing old progs making "stupid body movements".
"Magic" stays the same - the more user-friendly environment Sprinter uses in hardware/software aspects, the more popular the platform wil be... Don't you agree?!

Yeah, don't you agree, Sprinter makers?! :)

We are not sure today that emulating of GS in PLD is a best way.
We have a agreement with GPS COMPEX (owner of copyrights of GS) about design a GS with ISA-8.
You can ask Constantine (head of GPS COMPEX) about details cpgkonst@mail.ru. He is a member of our webforum but email is the best way for receiving quick answer, as I know.
But if GPS COMPEX will works slow, we publish a new version of Audio System (internal device, which present in PLD) earlier. It will include hardware audio mixer and some other features of good sound card.
Probably, it will not emulate GS directly. But a problem is an absence of Sprinter's powerful sound card, not an emulation of GS, isn't it?

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PETERS PLUS LTD

>Probably, it will not emulate GS directly.
-------------
But isn't it possible to make it in similar way like in Z80Stealth?
There are two options of emulation: one is real emulation and the another one is a fake emulation, when Z80S uses oridinary MOD player for PC. I was thinking about the same idea on Sprinter: user load a prog with GS support, and he has no GS, BUT he still can hear the music. D'ya understand?




>But a problem is an absence of Sprinter's powerful sound card, not an emulation of GS, isn't it?
Only partly. As you said before, your card is quite good as we can use software mixing, so it's not a big problem, after your explanation.
The real problem is: you can make new soundcard and there will be no trackers for it.
But if you would make emulation of GS, people could use any other tracker to compose music on the new card. That's the main problem.

a fake emulation, when Z80S uses oridinary MOD player for PC. I was thinking about the same idea on Sprinter: user load a prog with GS support, and he has no GS, BUT he still can hear the music.

How? Sprinter hasn't a multitasking OS today.

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PETERS PLUS LTD

Using some program-patch in ROM...? Or somewhere else...
Program calls GeneralSound, but there is no GS, so some othe aplication start to play music via Sprinter's card for instance...?
Or is it impossible...? Let me know.

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa/ftp/manuals/

This site content hardware and software descriptions and specifications for some soundcards. May be anybody write support for your 8-bit soundcard on Sprinter.

Thanks.

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PETERS PLUS LTD