Ensoniq ES1370
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[edit] PCI Bus Digital Audio and Music Controller
The AudioPCI ES1370 sound chip was the next-generation in sound technology from the now defunct technology company Ensoniq. One of the more important innovations found within was the move from ISA to the PCI bus. It was one of the first sound card solutions to offer full MS-DOS legacy compatibility. When paired with a capable codec, such as the AK4531, the ES1370 supported the then-latest in 3D audio positioning through 4-speaker surround sound. The chip was also a PCI bus master device that was designed to provide high-speed access to system RAM and resources, for wavetable data and effect processing.
ES1370 was one of the first audio chips to support the then-burgeoning Microsoft DirectSound3D audio API. When programs took full advantage of the API's capabilities, the ES1370 was capable of both global spatial and localized 3D sound effects, in both 2 and 4-speaker mode. The chip was capable of spatializing all audio automatically, but still required DirectSound3D usage for specific localization of sounds.
The ES1370 is also emulated as a piece of virtual hardware in Qemu.
- ENSONIQ wavetable synthesis
- 2 and 4 MByte downloadable sound sets (2MB=GM, 4MB=GM+GS+10 drum kits)
- Uses system RAM for sound storage(Memory locked or dynamic OS control)
- Multi-algorithm reverb and chorus
- Multiple level spatial 3D sound
- Microsoft DirectSound3D compatible (4 speaker 3D sound with AK4531 CODEC)
- High performance PCI Bus Master
- Only a single, shared IRQ required
- Low system overhead
- 100% DOS Legacy Compatible
- Unlimited Digital Audio Streams
- 32 simultaneous voices
- No ISA signals required
- No Distributed DMA signals required
- Drivers: DOS, Windows 3.1x, Win'95, WinNT, (WinNT (DEC Alpha), SUN Solaris(UltraAX) available)
[edit] References
- Ensoniq ES1370 Datasheet Ensoniq Corp., 1997, accessed January 1 2006.
