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78-636: Sound Blaster Live! (August 1998) saw the introduction of the EMU10K1 audio processor. Manufactured in a 0.35 μm 3-metal-layer CMOS process, it is a 2.44 million transistor ASIC rated at 1000 MIPS . The EMU10K1 featured hardware acceleration for DirectSound and EAX 1.0 and 2.0 ( environmental audio extensions ), along with a high-quality 64-voice MIDI sample-based synthesizer and an integrated FX8010 DSP chip for real-time digital audio effects. A major design change from its predecessor (the EMU8000)

156-825: A Live! Drive II, and the other cards differed only in software and in marketing outlets (the X-Gamer and MP3+ were meant only for North America). The OEM versions were primarily based on the CT4830 and differed from the retail ones in plastic mini-jacks of different colors (and sometimes in codec chips). On some CT4830 versions the CD_DIGITAL connector wasn't unsoldered. There were also such exotic cards as Sound Blaster PCI 512 which were delivered to Compaq and Dell. The Platinum, X-Gamer, MP3+ and Player were all non-5.1 cards and only supported 4.0 (stereo with rear speaker support). The generation 3 of Sound Blaster Live! cards appeared on

234-580: A couple of OEM versions (Value versions). The retail versions of the Platinum, X-Gamer, MP3+ and Player were based on the CT4760 model. The CT4760 differed from the full version of the generation 1 card (CT4620) in a lack of a I2S connector, in an improved layout and in an additional stereo Digital-Out mini-jack which had front and rear channels in the S/PDIF format on the central and radial pins. The Platinum had

312-547: A different internal connector arrangement (the unpopulated I2S_IN connector on CT4780 was removed and effectivelly replaced by Dells front panel header). This card is based on Generation 2 of Sound Blaster Live! cards and uses EMU10K1-SFF or EMU10K1-JFF audio processor. [5] This was a later, improved model. The EMU10K1 chip was restored, as was hardware EAX/DirectSound/DirectSound3D acceleration. Currently there are Windows drivers available for download from Creative's website (filename: (Dell) Driver Install Pack 2_10 Languages). It

390-495: A different way. In MIDI, every Registered Parameter is assigned a Registered Parameter Number or RPN. Registered Parameters are usually called RPNs for short. Setting Registered Parameters requires sending (numbers are decimal): The following global Registered Parameter Numbers (RPNs) are standardized (the parameter is specified by RPN LSB/MSB pair and the value is set by Data Entry LSB/MSB pair): An example of an RPN control sequence to set coarse tuning to A440 (parm 2, value 64)

468-671: A fully decoded MIDI interface with separate Input and Output (along with on mini-DIN converter.) The daughterboard connected to the card via a 40-pin Audio Extension (AUD_EXT) connector. Live! Drive was not supplied with the card and only became available in early 1999 as an upgrade. Note, the Live! Drive used the same 40-pin Audio Extension (AUD_EXT) connector and the cable as the CT4660 daughterboard. The original Sound Blaster Live!'s proprietary 9-pin mini-DIN connector for digital output

546-562: A gate array. What distinguishes a structured ASIC from a gate array is that in a gate array, the predefined metal layers serve to make manufacturing turnaround faster. In a structured ASIC, the use of predefined metallization is primarily to reduce cost of the mask sets as well as making the design cycle time significantly shorter. For example, in a cell-based or gate-array design the user must often design power, clock, and test structures themselves. By contrast, these are predefined in most structured ASICs and therefore can save time and expense for

624-673: A general rule, if you can find a design in a data book , then it is probably not an ASIC, but there are some exceptions. For example, two ICs that might or might not be considered ASICs are a controller chip for a PC and a chip for a modem . Both of these examples are specific to an application (which is typical of an ASIC) but are sold to many different system vendors (which is typical of standard parts). ASICs such as these are sometimes called application-specific standard products (ASSPs). Examples of ASSPs are encoding/decoding chip, Ethernet network interface controller chip, etc. General MIDI General MIDI (also known as GM or GM 1 )

702-530: A keyboard or synth module which uses the GM standard. Each distinct note number specifies a unique percussive instrument, rather than the sound's pitch. If a MIDI file is programmed to the General MIDI protocol, then the results are predictable, but timbre and sound fidelity may vary depending on the quality of the GM synthesizer. The General MIDI standard includes 47 percussive sounds, using note numbers 35-81 (of

780-427: A low-cost I/O solution aimed at handling the computer's graphics . Customization occurred by varying a metal interconnect mask. Gate arrays had complexities of up to a few thousand gates; this is now called mid-scale integration . Later versions became more generalized, with different base dies customized by both metal and polysilicon layers. Some base dies also include random-access memory (RAM) elements. In

858-589: A manufacturer held as a stock wafer never gives 100% circuit utilization . Often difficulties in routing the interconnect require migration onto a larger array device with a consequent increase in the piece part price. These difficulties are often a result of the layout EDA software used to develop the interconnect. Pure, logic-only gate-array design is rarely implemented by circuit designers today, having been almost entirely replaced by field-programmable devices. The most prominent of such devices are field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) which can be programmed by

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936-428: A means for saving the digital sounds, thus freeing non-technical users from the complexities of " patching " between inputs and outputs of various software modules. The original SB Live! had a very low noise floor for its time; however, a critical design flaw limited its application in quadraphonic audio. The two S/PDIF channels that each provided a stereo pair differed in their Digital to Analog reconstruction. Since

1014-476: A method of obtaining low cost prototypes. Often called shuttles, these MPWs, containing several designs, run at regular, scheduled intervals on a "cut and go" basis, usually with limited liability on the part of the manufacturer. The contract involves delivery of bare dies or the assembly and packaging of a handful of devices. The service usually involves the supply of a physical design database (i.e. masking information or pattern generation (PG) tape). The manufacturer

1092-401: A much higher skill requirement on the part of the design team. For digital-only designs, however, "standard-cell" cell libraries, together with modern CAD systems, can offer considerable performance/cost benefits with low risk. Automated layout tools are quick and easy to use and also offer the possibility to "hand-tweak" or manually optimize any performance-limiting aspect of the design. This

1170-476: A non-standard 4-pin Digital/Analog Out mini-jack which could have either 3 digital-outs in the S/PDIF format (front, rear and central/sub) or analog-outs of the central channel and of the subwoofer. The additional channels appeared due to a new 4-channel AC'97 codec (STAC9708) which replaced a dual-channel one (STAC9721 or CT1297). The Platinum 5.1 came with an updated version of the Live! Drive IR with

1248-540: A pre-defined listening environment from a control-panel application (concert hall, theater, headphones, etc.) It also provided hardware-acceleration for EAX , Creative's environmental audio technology. The Effect algorithms were created by a development system that integrated into Microsoft Developer Studio. The effects were written in a language similar to C , and compiled into native FX8010 object code by its compiler, fxasm . The Sound Blaster Live! featured higher audio quality than previous Sound Blasters, as it processed

1326-548: A remote control support. These cards were marketed as Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Platinum, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Gamer and Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 MP3+ It was possible to modify the generation 2 cards to offer 5.1 output by re-programing the 8-pin PROM chip (EEPROM 93c46). This was done by chaning the Subsystem ID to one fouund on generation 3 base audio controller [1] . A number of outside parties has released free drivers for

1404-448: A third-party as sub-components of a larger ASIC. They may be provided in the form of a hardware description language (often termed a "soft macro"), or as a fully routed design that could be printed directly onto an ASIC's mask (often termed a "hard macro"). Many organizations now sell such pre-designed cores – CPUs, Ethernet, USB or telephone interfaces – and larger organizations may have an entire department or division to produce cores for

1482-402: Is 101:0 , 100:2 , 6:64 , 101:127 , 100:127 . Two GM System Exclusive ("SysEx") messages are defined: one to enable and disable General MIDI compatibility mode (for synthesizers that also have non-GM modes); and the other to set the synthesizer's master volume. Roland GS is a superset of the General MIDI standard that added several proprietary extensions. The most notable addition

1560-934: Is a standardized specification for electronic musical instruments that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the American MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee (JMSC) and first published in 1991. The official specification is available in English from the MMA, bound together with the MIDI 1.0 specification, and in Japanese from the Association of Musical Electronic Industry (AMEI). GM imposes several requirements beyond

1638-496: Is a manufacturing method in which diffused layers, each consisting of transistors and other active devices , are predefined and electronics wafers containing such devices are "held in stock" or unconnected prior to the metallization stage of the fabrication process . The physical design process defines the interconnections of these layers for the final device. For most ASIC manufacturers, this consists of between two and nine metal layers with each layer running perpendicular to

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1716-573: Is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficiency video codec . Application-specific standard product chips are intermediate between ASICs and industry standard integrated circuits like the 7400 series or the 4000 series . ASIC chips are typically fabricated using metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) technology, as MOS integrated circuit chips. As feature sizes have shrunk and chip design tools improved over

1794-527: Is designed by using basic logic gates, circuits or layout specially for a design. Structured ASIC design (also referred to as " platform ASIC design ") is a relatively new trend in the semiconductor industry, resulting in some variation in its definition. However, the basic premise of a structured ASIC is that both manufacturing cycle time and design cycle time are reduced compared to cell-based ASIC, by virtue of there being pre-defined metal layers (thus reducing manufacturing time) and pre-characterization of what

1872-418: Is exclusive (not possible to use analog and digital at the same time). This card, marketed as a Sound Blaster Live!, did not have the full capabilities of the retail versions of Live! It used a different audio chip, not EMU10K1 but EMU10K1X, that is noticeably smaller with fewer pins. The chip does not accelerate DirectSound in hardware, nor EAX. The sale of this board by Dell created some controversy because it

1950-444: Is intermediate between § Gate-array and semi-custom design and § Full-custom design in terms of its non-recurring engineering and recurring component costs as well as performance and speed of development (including time to market ). By the late 1990s, logic synthesis tools became available. Such tools could compile HDL descriptions into a gate-level netlist . Standard-cell integrated circuits (ICs) are designed in

2028-468: Is largely because ASIC devices are capable of integrating large blocks of system functionality, and systems on a chip (SoCs) require glue logic , communications subsystems (such as networks on chip ), peripherals , and other components rather than only functional units and basic interconnection. In their frequent usages in the field, the terms "gate array" and "semi-custom" are synonymous when referring to ASICs. Process engineers more commonly use

2106-468: Is often referred to as a "silicon foundry" due to the low involvement it has in the process. An application-specific standard product or ASSP is an integrated circuit that implements a specific function that appeals to a wide market. As opposed to ASICs that combine a collection of functions and are designed by or for one customer , ASSPs are available as off-the-shelf components. ASSPs are used in all industries, from automotive to communications. As

2184-499: Is on the silicon (thus reducing design cycle time). Definition from Foundations of Embedded Systems states that: In a "structured ASIC" design, the logic mask-layers of a device are predefined by the ASIC vendor (or in some cases by a third party). Design differentiation and customization is achieved by creating custom metal layers that create custom connections between predefined lower-layer logic elements. "Structured ASIC" technology

2262-399: Is seen as bridging the gap between field-programmable gate arrays and "standard-cell" ASIC designs. Because only a small number of chip layers must be custom-produced, "structured ASIC" designs have much smaller non-recurring expenditures (NRE) than "standard-cell" or "full-custom" chips, which require that a full mask set be produced for every design. This is effectively the same definition as

2340-467: Is shared and provide the C+LFE channels in analog mode; otherwise, when Digital Out is activated this minijack provide an S/PDIF coaxial output feature, with the ability of playback stereo or AC3 pass-thru. Not all models have this feature. Some well known models that support it are as follows: SB0060, SB0100, SB0102, SB0220. This mode must be activated in the sound mixer with "Digital Output Only" checkbox and

2418-584: Is that on Linux operating systems, when using the ALSA sound system, the module that is used for the Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit is snd-ca0106 , while the module that is used by the Sound Blaster Live! is snd-emu10k1 . This was a series of professional sound cards made by E-mu which was owned by Creative and had developed the EMU10K1 DSP chip featured on Creative's Live! products. Based on

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2496-408: Is that standard-cell design uses the manufacturer's cell libraries that have been used in potentially hundreds of other design implementations and therefore are of much lower risk than a full custom design. Standard cells produce a design density that is cost-effective, and they can also integrate IP cores and static random-access memory (SRAM) effectively, unlike gate arrays. Gate array design

2574-493: Is usually only used internally by the synthesizer; the vast majority of MIDI devices, digital audio workstations and professional MIDI sequencers display these Program Numbers as shown in the table (1–128). In most synthesizer interpretations, guitar and bass sounds are set an octave lower than other instruments. In GM standard MIDI files, channel 10 is reserved for percussion instruments only. Notes recorded on channel 10 always produce percussion sounds when transmitted to

2652-505: The AC'97 chip provided an internal 48 kHz DAC, Creative chose not to implement two identical DAC pipelines, and the front-speaker audio pair was subjected to a different reconstruction and amplification regime to that of the rear channel (as evidenced by differently valued pull-up resistors and filter capacitors in the area forward of the AC'97 chip, in the specifications of the AC'97 itself, and in

2730-552: The Roland Sound Canvas line, which was also Roland's first General MIDI synth module. Yamaha XG is a superset of the General MIDI standard that added several proprietary extensions. The most notable additions were the 600 instruments and 32 notes polyphony. XG was introduced in 1994 with the Yamaha MU-series line of sound modules and PSR line of digital keyboards . In 1999, the official GM standard

2808-430: The open-source software movement in hardware design. Soft macros are often process-independent (i.e. they can be fabricated on a wide range of manufacturing processes and different manufacturers). Hard macros are process-limited and usually further design effort must be invested to migrate (port) to a different process or manufacturer. Some manufacturers and IC design houses offer multi-project wafer service (MPW) as

2886-613: The 1st generation of the SB/Live family was the SB Live! Gold. Featuring gold tracings on all major analog traces and external sockets, an EMI-suppressing printed circuit board substrate and lacquer, the Gold came standard with a daughterboard (CT4660) that implemented a separate 4-channel alternative mini-DIN digital output to Creative-branded internal-DAC speaker sets, a S/P-DIF digital audio Input and Output with separate software mappings, and

2964-577: The 48 kHz waveform to the requested target rate (such as 44.1 kHz or 32 kHz). This rate conversion step introduced intermodulation distortion into the downsampled output. However, the rate conversion was only applied when the audio signal was passed through the effects engine. The Sound Blaster Live! card had great difficulty with resampling audio CD source material (at 44.1 kHz) without introducing audible distortion. Creative addressed this concern by recommending recording audio exclusively at 48 kHz and using third-party software to handle

3042-709: The General MIDI System Level 1 performance specification: GM Instruments must also obey the following conventions for program and controller events: In MIDI, the instrument sound or "program" for each of the 16 possible MIDI channels is selected with the Program Change message, which has a Program Number parameter. The following table shows which instrument sound corresponds to each of the 128 possible GM Program Numbers. There are 128 program numbers. The numbers can be displayed as values 1 to 128, or, alternatively, as 0 to 127. The 0 to 127 numbering

3120-566: The Live! uses ".ecw" (Ensoniq Concert Wavetable) files for the wavetable emulation in DOS. The program enables support for many standards, such as Sound Blaster 16, General MIDI , AdLib (OPL3), among others. Sound Blaster Live! was the first sound card from Creative with the "What U Hear" recording input source. This was supported in the Windows drivers, so no additional software was needed to utilize it. The analog stereo audio signal that came out of

3198-444: The Live!, usually called Live! 5.1 , offered 5.1-channel support which adds a center-channel speaker and LFE subwoofer output, most useful for movie watching where Dolby Digital 5.1 is decoded. The Live! implemented DOS legacy support via Ensoniq 's AudioPCI DOS TSR program. Creative acquired Ensoniq in 1998 and, as part of the deal, made use of this highly compatible ISA sound card emulator with their newer cards. In fact,

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3276-412: The MIDI 1.0 specification. For example, assigning one of the 128 possible MIDI Program Number s selects an instrument. With MIDI 1.0, the assignment could be to an arbitrary instrument; but with GM, a program number assigns a specific instrument name . This helps ensure that playback of MIDI files sounds more consistent between different devices compliant with the GM specification. However, it still leaves

3354-475: The Micromatrix family of bipolar diode–transistor logic (DTL) and transistor–transistor logic (TTL) arrays. Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology opened the door to the broad commercialization of gate arrays. The first CMOS gate arrays were developed by Robert Lipp, in 1974 for International Microcircuits, Inc. (IMI). Metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) standard-cell technology

3432-522: The Sound Blaster Live! cards e.g. kxproject . These Drivers offer more control over the DSP. For details on the original Live! including the Gold edition, marketing strategy, and design faults, see Sound Blaster Live! (Original) Released 1999. [2] Includes Live! Drive IR. Released 2000. [3] Live! with added outputs for a center channel speaker and LFE subwoofer channel. This minijack

3510-408: The ability to integrate analog components and other pre-designed —and thus fully verified—components, such as microprocessor cores, that form a system on a chip . The disadvantages of full-custom design can include increased manufacturing and design time, increased non-recurring engineering costs, more complexity in the computer-aided design (CAD) and electronic design automation systems, and

3588-475: The actual sounds of each instrument up to the supplier to implement; one manufacturer's French horn, say, could be brighter, or more mellow, than another's. The GM 1 specification was superseded by General MIDI 2 in 1999; however, GM 1 is still commonly used. General MIDI was widely supported by computer game developers in the 1990s. To be GM 1 compatible, sound generating devices (keyboards, hardware or software synthesizers, sound cards) are required to meet

3666-559: The design to be brought into manufacturing more quickly. Cell libraries of logical primitives are usually provided by the device manufacturer as part of the service. Although they will incur no additional cost, their release will be covered by the terms of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and they will be regarded as intellectual property by the manufacturer. Usually, their physical design will be pre-defined so they could be termed "hard macros". What most engineers understand as " intellectual property " are IP cores , designs purchased from

3744-410: The designer compared to gate-array based designs. Likewise, the design tools used for structured ASIC can be substantially lower cost and easier (faster) to use than cell-based tools, because they do not have to perform all the functions that cell-based tools do. In some cases, the structured ASIC vendor requires customized tools for their device (e.g., custom physical synthesis) be used, also allowing for

3822-417: The desired sample rate conversion to avoid using the EMU10K1's sample rate conversion. Sound Blaster Live! supported multi-speaker output, initially up to a four-speaker setup. The software referred to this as a "4.1" setup, meaning 4 satellites and a subwoofer . While this is the case, the subwoofer is not on a separate output as it is with 5.1 and higher audio. Instead, a low-pass filter (crossover) within

3900-525: The extended digital I/O card. The Value version also didn't have an 40-pin Audio Extension connector. It was replaced with a 12-pin SPDIF_EXT one which had only several Audio Extension signals (namely, inputs and outputs of S/PDIF digital interfaces). The generation 2 of Sound Blaster Live! appeared in autumn of 1999. This family consisted of the Sound Blaster Live! Platinum, Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer, Sound Blaster Live! MP3+, Sound Blaster Live! Player and

3978-476: The following conceptual stages referred to as electronics design flow , although these stages overlap significantly in practice: These steps, implemented with a level of skill common in the industry, almost always produce a final device that correctly implements the original design, unless flaws are later introduced by the physical fabrication process. The design steps also called design flow , are also common to standard product design. The significant difference

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4056-519: The functionality of ASICs. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) are the modern-day technology improvement on breadboards , meaning that they are not made to be application-specific as opposed to ASICs. Programmable logic blocks and programmable interconnects allow the same FPGA to be used in many different applications. For smaller designs or lower production volumes, FPGAs may be more cost-effective than an ASIC design, even in production. The non-recurring engineering (NRE) cost of an ASIC can run into

4134-520: The implementation of their designs. A solution to this problem, which also yielded a much higher density device, was the implementation of standard cells . Every ASIC manufacturer could create functional blocks with known electrical characteristics, such as propagation delay , capacitance and inductance, that could also be represented in third-party tools. Standard-cell design is the utilization of these functional blocks to achieve very high gate density and good electrical performance. Standard-cell design

4212-816: The later EMU10K2 chip, model numbers include 0404, 1212, 1616, and 1820. Their professional features included effects with higher quality, front-mounted drive bay panel with headphone output, dual mic/line inputs with physical level control knobs, digital coax in/out on both PCI card and drive bay, mixer with dB precision, phantom power for microphones (12V), ASIO, mixer presets, internal mixer rerouting, 64 MIDI channels, 32MB system RAM usage for SF2 (Gigabyte expandable in Windows XP) and future expandability through an extra multi-out card. They also featured line in and line out; all analogue inputs and outputs were balanced ¼"/6.3mm TRS jacks. ASIC An application-specific integrated circuit ( ASIC / ˈ eɪ s ɪ k / )

4290-534: The main Line Out was directed into this input. That way, one could mix all available inputs and the MIDI synth into one stereo signal. When using "What U Hear" with 5.1 sound, the sound would be downmixed to stereo first. The Creative Recorder utility included with the sound card was specifically designed to take advantage of the "What U Hear" feature, making it a simple matter to capture streaming sound from any source, even from programs that deliberately avoid providing

4368-511: The market in autumn of 2000. The family consisted of the same cards as the second generation one; they, however, were marked "5.1" which meant a support of 6-channel acoustic systems. All cards in the original release were based on the SB0060 model, including the OEM versions. They differed from the generation 2 cards in color plastic mini-jacks and in an additional support of central and sub channels via

4446-423: The mid-1980s, a designer would choose an ASIC manufacturer and implement their design using the design tools available from the manufacturer. While third-party design tools were available, there was not an effective link from the third-party design tools to the layout and actual semiconductor process performance characteristics of the various ASIC manufacturers. Most designers used factory-specific tools to complete

4524-413: The millions of dollars. Therefore, device manufacturers typically prefer FPGAs for prototyping and devices with low production volume and ASICs for very large production volumes where NRE costs can be amortized across many devices. Early ASICs used gate array technology. By 1967, Ferranti and Interdesign were manufacturing early bipolar gate arrays. In 1967, Fairchild Semiconductor introduced

4602-618: The more abstract MIDI 1.0 specification. While MIDI 1.0 by itself provides a communication protocol which ensures that different instruments can interoperate at a fundamental level – for example, that pressing keys on a MIDI keyboard will cause an attached MIDI sound module to play musical notes – GM goes further in two ways. First, GM requires that all compliant MIDI instruments meet a certain minimal set of features, such as being able to play at least 24 notes simultaneously ( polyphony ). Second, GM attaches specific interpretations to many parameters and control messages which were left unspecified in

4680-404: The one below it. Non-recurring engineering costs are much lower than full custom designs, as photolithographic masks are required only for the metal layers. Production cycles are much shorter, as metallization is a comparatively quick process; thereby accelerating time to market . Gate-array ASICs are always a compromise between rapid design and performance as mapping a given design onto what

4758-563: The only digital input may buy an adapter from Creative. The Gold highlighted many features aimed at music composition; ease-of-use (plug-and-play for musicians), real-time loopback-recording of the MIDI-synthesizer (with full freedom of Soundfonts, and environmental effects such as reverb, etc.), and bundled MIDI-software. The Live! Value (CT4670) is similar to the full Live! with the exception that it has color-coded plastic connectors (mini-jacks) instead of gold and does not include

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4836-601: The possible 128 numbers from 0–127), as follows: The standard does not specify program change numbers for different drum sets. In MIDI, adjustable parameters for each of the 16 possible MIDI channels may be set with the Control Change (CC) message, which has a Control Number parameter and a Control Value parameter (expressed in a range from 0 to 127). GM also specifies which operations should be performed by multiple Control Numbers. GM defines several Registered Parameters, which act like Controllers but are addressed in

4914-512: The rear speakers out of phase with the front, requiring switchover. These problems were not encountered by those using the Gold editions' daughterboard 4-speaker digital-output, but the tendency of the AC'97 chip to fail when used as an input source to medium-impedance musical instruments removed the use of the front channels altogether, although the chip could be sourced from cheaper AC'97 compatible products and soldered into place. Nevertheless, simply redirecting front signal to rear output of SB Live!

4992-549: The rest of the organization. The company ARM only sells IP cores, making it a fabless manufacturer . Indeed, the wide range of functions now available in structured ASIC design is a result of the phenomenal improvement in electronics in the late 1990s and early 2000s; as a core takes a lot of time and investment to create, its re-use and further development cuts product cycle times dramatically and creates better products. Additionally, open-source hardware organizations such as OpenCores are collecting free IP cores, paralleling

5070-401: The send level of sound effect blocks (cc#91-94), entering additional parameters (cc#98-101), portamento, sostenuto, soft pedal (cc#65-67), and model-specific SysEx messages for setting various parameters of the synth engine. The 14 additional drum sounds are numbered 27-34 and 82–87, bracketing the 47 General MIDI standard sounds numbered 35–81, and are as follows: GS was introduced in 1991 with

5148-410: The sound digitally at every stage, and because of its greater chip integration that reduced the analog signal losses of older, larger cards. Unfortunately, digital processing brought some limitations. The DSP had an internal fixed sample rate of 48 kHz, a standard AC'97 clock, meaning that the EMU10K1 always captured external audio-sources at 48 kHz, then performed a sample rate conversion on

5226-417: The speaker system removes high and midrange frequencies from the sound card's output for the subwoofer. Games see a "4.1" speaker system as quadraphonic because DirectSound itself offers no subwoofer output in this configuration. This is not limited to Creative sound cards; Aureal , Ensoniq , Philips , and other manufacturers have made cards that use four-speaker output in the same fashion. Later versions of

5304-414: The term "semi-custom", while "gate-array" is more commonly used by logic (or gate-level) designers. By contrast, full-custom ASIC design defines all the photolithographic layers of the device. Full-custom design is used for both ASIC design and for standard product design. The benefits of full-custom design include reduced area (and therefore recurring component cost), performance improvements, and also

5382-495: The use of different amplifier Op-Amps). The rear channel was serviced by a separate, but arguably better Philips UDA1334 DAC, yet the Op-Amp used to boost the signal to output levels had a noticeably different frequency response envelope that was not normalized to the front channel, leaving a "thin and quiet" rear channel. To make matters worse, the rear channel Op-Amp was of the inverting variety without being treated as such, leaving

5460-418: The user and thus offer minimal tooling charges, non-recurring engineering, only marginally increased piece part cost, and comparable performance. Today, gate arrays are evolving into structured ASICs that consist of a large IP core like a CPU , digital signal processor units, peripherals , standard interfaces , integrated memories , SRAM , and a block of reconfigurable , uncommitted logic. This shift

5538-460: The years, the maximum complexity (and hence functionality) possible in an ASIC has grown from 5,000 logic gates to over 100 million. Modern ASICs often include entire microprocessors , memory blocks including ROM , RAM , EEPROM , flash memory and other large building blocks. Such an ASIC is often termed a SoC ( system-on-chip ). Designers of digital ASICs often use a hardware description language (HDL), such as Verilog or VHDL , to describe

5616-427: Was for a long time a favorite trick for computer audio enthusiasts who want better sound for minimum of money. Despite these problems, the original SB Live! can still be used well as a S/PDIF input/output and MIDI input/output device for network-connected digital audio workstation environments. The Live! (CT4620) and Live! Value (CT4670) are the original autumn 1998 releases of the Live! family. The flagship model of

5694-448: Was introduced by Fairchild and Motorola , under the trade names Micromosaic and Polycell, in the 1970s. This technology was later successfully commercialized by VLSI Technology (founded 1979) and LSI Logic (1981). A successful commercial application of gate array circuitry was found in the low-end 8-bit ZX81 and ZX Spectrum personal computers , introduced in 1981 and 1982. These were used by Sinclair Research (UK) essentially as

5772-462: Was not obviously marketed as an inferior or cheaper product. The card can be identified by its part number (SB0200/0203). [4] There is also another Dell OEM card that Creative produced, the card is based on regular Sound Blaster Live! value card (CT4780) but can be distinguished by having a white connector for a front panel audio header for Dell PCs. When compared to CT4780, the Dell specific CT4780 had

5850-619: Was recommended that recording should be done at 48 kHz sampling rate, as there was an issue with hardware downsampling. The Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit (SB0410) was not actually a member of the Sound Blaster Live! family, because it lacked the EMU10k1/10k2 processor. It was a stripped-down version of the Audigy Value, with an SNR of 100 dB, software based EAX, no advanced resolution DVD-Audio Playback, and no Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Digital EX 6.1 playback. Evidence for this

5928-431: Was referred by Creative to as the "Mini Din.", it allowed the use of a microphone and digital speakers at the same time. This cannot be done with the value and base models of all subsequent Creative sound cards, as they share a single port for S/PDIF digital in/output and microphone connectivity. The Mini-DIN connection was not included in any subsequent Sound Blaster product, however owners of speaker systems that use this as

6006-598: Was that the EMU10K1 used system memory, accessed over the PCI bus, for the wavetable samples, rather than using expensive on-board memory. This was possible at this point because systems were being equipped with far more RAM than previously, and PCI offered far faster and more efficient data transfer than the old ISA bus. The integrated FX8010 was a 32-bit programmable processor with 1 kilobyte of instruction memory. It provided real-time postprocessing effects (such as reverb , flanging , or chorus ). This capability let users select

6084-410: Was the ability to address multiple banks of programs (instrument sounds) by using an additional pair of Bank Select controllers to specify up to 16384 "variation" sounds (cc#0 is Bank Select MSB , and cc#32 is Bank Select LSB ). Other most notable features were 9 Drum kits with 14 additional drum sounds each, simultaneous Percussion Kits – up to 2 (Channels 10/11), Control Change messages for controlling

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