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From: kluge@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Oliver Kluge)
Subject: Re: Here's some info on MCA SoundBlaster
Message-ID: <1991Apr12.142219.23990@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE>
Sender: news@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE
Organization: Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Munich Institute of Technology
References: <1991Apr9.125612.464@husc3.harvard.edu> <1991Apr10.064142.2900@d.cs.okstate.edu>
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1991 14:22:19 GMT
Lines: 62

In article <1991Apr10.064142.2900@d.cs.okstate.edu> ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG) writes:
>It's got 11-voice FM music, and an optional 12-voice stereo CMS music ($20
>extra).  It also has a 8-bit DAC and a 8-bit ADC for input and output
>respectively, both using DMA (slow CPU by only 5%), input rate up to
>something like 12KHz and output 27KHz.  It has a microphone jack that you
>can plug in an ordinary microphone from RadioShack (mine cost $10).  It 
>also has optional MIDI and a joystick port.  The ISA version (that is
>standard PC/XT/AT) has 2x4watts amplifier onboard, making an external
>amplifier unnecessary if you are using headphone  or mini-speakers. 

Hi!

Yesterday I have got my MCA soundblaster. I would like to make
some comments on it.

First of all, THERE IS NO ADDITIONAL CMS CAPABILITY. There
isn't even a free socket on the board.
The board is not SMD, in fact, it even is no multilayer board.
Not that it would be necessary, but it would have provided
denser packing to make space for the CMS...
It also lacks the blue plastic retainers and card holders common to
MCA cards. This means that the card and the MCA connector on the
main board get physically stressed and I think on the long run
damage to the connector is inevitable. So get one of those retainers
and attach it to the board (the drill holes necessary are already
there. I checked with my distributor - These retainers REALLY aren't
missing - Creative Lab thinks they are not necessary. Bad. )

But the worst thing is:

While all audio-related parts of the card work wonderfully in my IBM
PS/2 Model 80 (16 MHz 386, 1 wait state), the joystick interface
chokes! I debugged the board with an oscilloscope, finding that
the IO interface circuitry on the Soundblaster are too slow to
follow a 16 MHz CPU!!!!! Creative Lab provided a jumper J5 to
initiate a Card Channel Ready (CD CHREADY) signal to the
bus signalling to the bus that the card will take some more
time to process the operation. This really works and makes the
joystick interface work flawlessly. However, the Soundblaster
fails to release this line timely to not disturb basic system
operations, so unpredictable system crashes occur randomly 
within 0-3 minutes!
This malfunction probably stems from the fact that CL eqipped
the joystick interface part (not the audio part!) with 
Low-Power Schottky (LS) TTLs that might be too slow, especially 
if your machine is faster than my 16 MHz 1 wait. As any other 
MCA board manufacturer does, CL is best advised to use only 
Advanced Low-Power Schottky (ALS) or Fast (F) in the future. 
Perhaps the PCB layout needs better design.

So, as a conclusion: I will recommend the Soundblaster MCV
(Its offficial name) to anyone wanting the SOUND. If you
need the JOYSTICK interface, wait until Creative Labs gets
its circuitry design straightened out. 

Oliver Kluge

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