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Which sound card?

ibmapc

ibmapc

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I have two sound cards on hand. One is a Sound Blaster 2.0 CT1350B rev 0. I'm attempting to install the CMS upgrade for this card.(haven't got it working yet)
The other one is a SOUNDBLASTER 16 SCSI-2 ASP CT1770.
My questions are as follows;
1.)Which card would work best in my Souped Up (AST HotShot 286 Accelerator) IBM 5155 portable?
2.)Is there a CMS upgrade for the CT1770? Or is it already built in?
3.)If not, how much will the CMS upgrade do for the CT1350B, if I can get it working?
4.)What can the CT1770 do that the CT1350B with the CMS ugrade can't?
I know the SCSI port on the CT1770 won't work because it needs a 16 bit buss and the High DMA is not availlable. But other than that, it seems to work well on the 8 bit buss.


If you can answer just one of these, please chime in!

Thanks


Greg
 
The SB16 doesn't have any sockets for the CMS chips (as far as I'm aware) - so you won't get Gameblaster compatibility. However you'll get the benefit of stereo OPL3 fm music and 16bit sample playback, compared to the mono OPL2 fm and effects from the SB2.

Basically, music and effects will sound better on the SB16, but the earlier card may have better compatibility and you get Gameblaster support for those few games that had it. Swings and roundabouts :)
 
Also, 16-bit digital sound may not work due to the lack of High DMA channels. Finding games that support stereo OPL3 (as opposed to dual OPL2) playback is not easy, and those that work playably on a Portable is extremely difficult.
 
I'm with GH - If we were talking about a 386/486 system, I'd say go for the SB16, but we're talking about an 8088. Stick with the CT1350B.. All of the games that will run on your machine had sounds and music that would be specific to that era of card anyways.

Also... since you're dealing with a CT1350B (SB2.0) and not a CT1320 (SB1.5), you're going to need the GAL replacement chip for the proprietary PAL chip (with nods and respect to Chuck)

*edit - sorry, just saw the other thread w/ the problems on using the GAL replacement
 
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The current GAL dump doesn't work with CT1350 revision 0 cards unfortunately, so for the time being you won't be able to get the CMS upgrqade working. I can personally confirm that it works with revision 2, 3 and 4 but not cards without a revision number.
 
DonutKing said:
The current GAL dump doesn't work with CT1350 revision 0 cards unfortunately, so for the time being you won't be able to get the CMS upgrqade working. I can personally confirm that it works with revision 2, 3 and 4 but not cards without a revision number.
Click to expand...
Chuck(G) is workin' on that. He got a rev 0 to work with a National Semiconductor GAL. I've got a couple of them coming and will replace my Lattice chip and give it another go.
see this thread.
 
ibmapc said:
Chuck(G) is workin' on that. He got a rev 0 to work with a National Semiconductor GAL. I've got a couple of them coming and will replace my Lattice chip and give it another go.
see this thread.
Click to expand...

We are all extremely eager to hear the results. If you can get the rev. 0 working reliably with another GAL manufacturer, then all those SB 2.0s can be maximized and Chuck(G)'s method will be fully vindicated.
 
Where on the card is the revision number printed ? Mine has just CT-1350B printed on the upper left corner.......
 
*watches thread with anticipation, in hopes his SB 2.0 will one day sport the CMS upgrade... Good work so far though guys, serriously! :D
 
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