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PSSJ ISA Boards

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dlightman

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From usenet and general talk I knew these existed for 15+ years, but I never thought I'd get to hold one...

Here's a much larger image: http://69.43.38.169/pssj.png

pssjs.png
 
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Please forgive me for lack of details in the initial post. I was short on time but too excited not to post about the discovery.

These are 8-bit ISA cards with the PSSJ chip which were used for development and testing at Tandy. The first two have a PSSJ and the third has a double buffered PSSJ-2 (PSSJ/2?) used in late model TL/2 and newer 1000/2500 series systems.

Five of these cards existed, one was modified for the PSSJ-2, another had distortion problems and Frank owned 4 of the 5.

Anyways I've heard these cards existed for 15+ years and can't believe I currently possess them. If you are interested in the where/how PM me and I'll gladly explain.

If you aren't familiar with the PSSJ Great Hierophant has a great write up: http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-journey-of-pcjrtandy-sound-chip.html
 
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dlightman said:
Five of these cards existed, one was modified for the PSSJ-2, another had distortion problems and Frank owned 4 of the 5.
Click to expand...
Frank mentioned that a second run of development boards probably made their way into the hands of Disney, among others.

While this sort of development hardware was fairly common, it does seem like it wouldn't have taken much to turn this into an actual, marketable product (complete with MIDI interfacing), a full year prior to the release of the Sound Blaster. Then again, Frank went into some detail about the shortcomings of the DAC portion of the PSSJ, the "clicking" behavior of which can be something of an annoyance without software workarounds.

Nice find though. I'm not sure what your plans are, but I wouldn't mind acquiring one of the functional cards, if that's ever a possibility. :)
 
My plans are to record audio with and from them, take a lot of pictures, make a few videos and when that's done I'm going to let them go so that others can enjoy them.

Don't get me wrong I'm super excited about having them after all this time and there's a TON of stuff I want to do with them. Since I posted LOTS of people have asked what my plans were and I've really gone back and fourth on it but I don't want to be the guy who runs them through their paces then sticks them in a drawer for another 20 years.

That just doesn't seem like much fun for everybody else...
 
The Tandy 1000 FAQ indicated that some were out there somewhere:

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II.J.3. Can I install a Tandy DAC or 3-voice chip in a normal PC?

Probably not. Tandy once made a PSSJ expansion card ("PSSJ" is the name of the sound chip), but they are very rare. If you find the card, you will need to jumper it for IRQ 7, DMA 1, as software for the Tandy DAC expects those settings. The "SayIt" card from Roar Technology of Canada may be the same (see section III.B.7.).
There are emulators for the 3-voice chip if you want to play your old Tandy games on a newer PC. Check out the Tandem emulator, for example.
-----

It's amazing these exist.. seriously. I remember when we were talking about doing the three channel TI chip ISA card there was a sidebar conversation about this. So many questions... since the same IC did the Parallel, Serial, Sound, and Joystick (PSSJ) did these cards just have configured the sound only? It doesn't look like there are really that many other ports on them.

Edit: I see the joystick header. How about parallel and serial? :) Be curious how they kept those from interfering with existing parallel and serial in a system they plopped these into.
 
acadiel said:
Edit: I see the joystick header. How about parallel and serial? :) Be curious how they kept those from interfering with existing parallel and serial in a system they plopped these into.
Click to expand...
I'd assume that the glue logic on the card is set up to only enable the chip if the correct range of ports are being accessed...?
 
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