Wrong soundcard name (SoundBlaster 1.2)

[rkurbatov]

The card on Figure 2.32 is actually Sound Blaster 2.0

Creative had a lot of variations of their cards even within the same generations and even different variations could have different revisions. But there was nothing like Sound Blaster 1.2.

Initial SB 1.0 had lots of IC chips with intel 8051 MCU used as DSP, YM3812 for FM music and two CMS chips for compatibility with previous Creative card - GameBlaster (these were actually Philips SA1099 chips).

There was some card later called as SB 1.5 - with CMS chips and one PAL removed, could be installed as an upgrade if needed.

And then it was SB 2.0 or SB Deluxe - no CMS chips again (could be installed as upgrade, btw present on Figure 2.32), better integration thus less chips on board overall, custom Creative ASIC instead of quite standard 8051 (but still 8051 based), updated firmware allowing better DMA handling. This updated firmware could be installed on original SB 1.0 card (technically new 8051 chip with new firmware) thus making both cards the same from programmers perspecitve.

- here is original SB 1.0 (or CT1320A)

[rkurbatov]

As for SB Pro everything is even worse. There were two versions of SB Pro.

CT1330A that is shown in the book was later called SB Pro 1.0. It had 2 YM3812 chips for stereo effects that was used in pretty small amount of games. Accessed by standard Adlib port both chips recievied the same commands thus having full Adlib compatibility (both chips producing same sound worked as one mono chip). Though each IC could be accessed separately on other ports producing real stereo.

And then there was SB Pro 2.0 where both YM3812 (OPL2) chips were replaced with newer YM262 (OPL3) that was stereo from the beginning and had additional features like more complex sounds. SB Pro 1.0 lived not very long so every SB Pro compatible clone card is usually SB Pro 2.0 compatible.

And then again - Creative released their first 16 bit cards - SoundBlaster 16, put OPL3 chip for FM synthesis on them (either original YM289 or their own pretty bad imitation). But on DSP level they were only SB 1.0 (2.0) compatible, no SB Pro compatibility. So more advanced SB16 cards did not have stereo sound in Wolf3D (that is important for gameplay, btw).

[fabiensanglard]

Thank you for taking the time to report the problem. I am going to work on fixing this.

Did I get the model right (CT1350B)?

[rkurbatov]

Did I get the model right (CT1350B)?

Yes (it's in the left top corner), just name the figure Sound Blaster 2.0

[fabiensanglard]

Thank you!