Mockingboard

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The Mockingboard was a sound card for the Apple II family of microcomputers built by Sweet Micro Systems. The standard Apple II machines never had particularly good sound, especially when compared to competitors like the SID chip-enabled Commodore 64. With the notable exception of the Apple IIGS, all an Apple II programmer could do was send clicks to the speaker. The Mockingboard allowed programmers to send complex, high-quality sound via its specialized hardware. The Mockingboard required external speakers and could not use the Apple's built-in speaker.

The Mockingboard was available in various models for either the slot-based Apple II / Apple II Plus / Apple IIe systems or in one special model for the Apple IIc. Sound was generated through one or more AY-3-8910 or compatible sound chips, with one chip offering three square-wave synthesis channels. The boards could also be equipped with an optional speech chip (a Votrax SC-01 or compatible).

Some software products supported more than one Mockingboard. For instance, Ultima V supported two boards, for a total of 12 voices.

There was a Mockingboard-compatible sound card from Applied Engineering, called the Phasor. It had 4 sound chips and thus provided 12 audio channels.

In 2005, an Apple II retrocomputing hardware company, GSE-Reactive, cloned the mockingboard and offered it for sale.[1]

1 Models
- 1.1 Early models
- 1.2 Later models
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Models

[edit] Early models

Sound I: one AY-3-8910 chip for three audio channels
Speech I: one SC-01 chip
Sound II: two AY-3-8910 chips for six audio channels
Sound/Speech I: one AY-3-8910 and one SC-01

[edit] Later models

Mockingboard A: two AY-3-8913 chips for six audio channels and two open sockets for SSI-263 speech chips
Mockingboard B: SSI-263 speech chip upgrade for Mockingboard A
Mockingboard C: two AY-3-8913 and one SSI-263 (essentially a Mockingboard A with the upgrade pre-installed, only one speech chip allowed)
Mockingboard D: for Apple IIc only, two AY-3-8913 and one SSI-263
Mockingboard M: Bundled with Mindscape's Bank_Street_Music_Writer, with two AY-3-8913 chips and an open socket for one speech chip. This model included a headphone jack and a jumper to permit sound to be played through the Apple's built-in speaker.
Mockingboard v1: A clone of the Mockingboard A from GSE-Reactive