The GF1 chip

Gravis Ultrasound or GUS is a sound card for the IBM PC compatible system platform, made by Canada-based Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd. It was very popular in the demo scene in the 1990s, due to its superior sound quality compared to similarly-priced soundcards of its time. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (731x746, 199 KB) Summary A Gravis GF1 sound chip, used on Gravis Ultrasound sound board. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (731x746, 199 KB) Summary A Gravis GF1 sound chip, used on Gravis Ultrasound sound board. ... A sound card (also known as an audio card) is a computer expansion card that can input and output sound under control of computer programs. ... IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC, XT, or AT internal design, facilitated by various manufacturers... In computing, a platform describes some sort of framework, either in hardware or software, which allows software to run. ... Advanced Gravis Computer Technology, Ltd. ... The demoscene is a computer sub-culture that came to prominence during the rise of the 16 bit micros (the Atari ST and the Amiga), but demos first appeared during the 8-bit era on computers such as C64 and ZX Spectrum. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ...

The Gravis Ultrasound was unique at the time of its launch (1992) with its use of 'wavetable' sample-based music synthesis technology on the IBM PC platform — the ability to use real-world sound recordings rather than artificial computer-generated waveforms to base a musical instrument on; so a piano sounds like an actual real piano, a trumpet like an actual trumpet, etc. The GUS was remarkable for MIDI playback quality with a large set of instrument patches that could be stored in its own RAM, having up to 32 hardware audio channels of audio. Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Wavetable synthesis is used in digital musical instruments (synthesizers) to produce natural tone-like sounds. ... Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be similar in structure to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. ... Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. ... RAM redirects here. ...

The cards (all manufactured on red PCBs, similar to fellow Canadian company ATI) were very agreeably priced, although a little more expensive than Creative cards; they undercut many equivalent professional cards aimed at musicians by a huge margin, and brought CD quality audio reproduction within the grasp of home PC users. Part of a 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer board. ... ATI may stand for: ATI Technologies Inc. ...

Versions

Ultrasound Classic

Gravis Ultrasound (Classic)

The first UltraSound was made into production in the Summer of 1992. The initial card didn't fully conform to the Multimedia PC requirement, due to absence of 16-bit audio recording and onboard analog mixer (used to control volume of analog CD, line-in etc. inputs). The final revision (v3.74) of the GUS Classic featured 256 KB of onboard RAM (upgradeable to 1024 KB through DIP sockets), hardware analog mixer, and support for 16-bit recording through a separate daughterboard based on Crystal Semiconductors CS4231 codec. Image File history File linksMetadata Ultrasound_classic. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Ultrasound_classic. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... The Multimedia PC, or MPC, was a recommended configuration for a PC with a CD-ROM drive. ... A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix kilo-, meaning 1,000) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to either 1,000 bytes or 1,024 bytes (210), depending on context. ... ICs in DIP14-Package Several PDIPs and CERDIPS. The large CERDIP in the foreground is an 8080 processor. ... A codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. ...

Ultrasound MAX

Gravis Ultrasound MAX

A version of GUS with CS4231 codec on board, 512 KB of RAM on board (upgradeable to 1024 KB with a single SOJ chip) and Panasonic/Sony/Mitsumi CD-ROM interface slots. CS4231 provided support for Windows Sound System specs (although the IO port range didn't match the WSS hardware) and could be used for SoundBlaster emulation. The software CD included a demo that featured "3D holographic sound" through the use of software HRTF filters. The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... Windows Sound System (WSS) was a sound card specification developed by Microsoft for use in their Windows 3. ... HRTFs for left and right ear (expressed here as HRIRs) describe the filtering of a sound source (x(t)) before it is perceived at the left and right ears as xL(t) and xR(t), respectively. ...

Ultrasound Plug & Play (PnP)

Gravis Ultrasound Plug & Play

New card based on AMD InterWave technology with a completely different sound set. Featured 1 MB of sound ROM, no onboard RAM (although it could be expanded to 8 MB with two 30-pin SIMMs), and ATAPI CD-ROM interface. A 'Pro' version added 512 KB of on-board RAM required for compatibility with GUS Classic. ATA cables: 40 wire ribbon cable top, 80 wire ribbon cable bottom Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA), is a standard interface for connecting storage devices such as hard disks and CD-ROM drives inside personal computers. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ...

Ultrasound Ace

A budget version of Ultrasound Classic with 512 KB of RAM (upgradable to 1024 KB, just as the MAX); had no game port or recording. Marketed as a competitor to Wave Blaster-compatible cards, it was supposed to be installed alongside a SoundBlaster Pro/16 card as a 'wavetable synthesis' upgrade. Prototype of this card was named "Sound Buddy". Sound Blaster 16 with Wave Blaster header (top left) The Wave Blaster port is an internal connector / header on some sound cards from the 1990s that allowed sample-based synthesis MIDI playback capability to be added to sound cards. ...

Ultrasound CD3

A OEM version of Ultrasound Classic with 512–1024 KB of RAM; featuring AT-BUS CD-ROM interfaces: Sony, Mitsumi and MKE/Panasonic standards. Produced by Synergy. This is the only Gravis soundcard with green circuit board and is similar with clones Primax SoundStorm Wave (model Sound M-16B) and AltraSound. Close-up photo of one side of a motherboard PCB, showing conductive traces, vias and solder points for through-hole components on the opposite side. ...

Ultrasound Extreme

Gravis Ultrasound Extreme

3rd party OEM solution that combined Ultrasound Classic with ESS1688 Audiodrive sound chip for Sound Blaster Pro and AdLib emulation. Produced by Synergy as ViperMAX. It has 1 MB RAM by default, but doesn't have the possibility to upgrade further. The term ESS: In electronic switching systems refers to an electronic switching system. ... The Sound Blaster logo The Sound Blaster family of sound cards was for many years the de facto standard for audio on the IBM PC compatible system platform, before PC audio became commoditized, and backward-compatibility became less of a feature. ... AdLib, Inc. ...

Ultrasound Clones and OEM cards

All clones used original Gravis GF1 or AMD Interwave soundchip.

• Primax SoundStorm Wave (GF1) - there were two variants of cards from the well known scanner and mouse producer. Re-labeled Altrasound as Sound M-16B and different Sound M-16C with 4x CD-ROM Interfaces.
• Synergy ViperMAX (GF1) - same card later repacked as Ultrasound Extreme, but with only 512kB RAM onboard.
• Expertcolor MED3201 (Interwave LC) - probably the only card with cut-down variant of GFA1 chip - AM78C200 Interwave LC. First series was with standard Am78C201KC.
• Compaq Ultra-Sound 32 (Interwave) - one of the last Interwave cards was designed for Compaq Presario desktops. Newer "C" revision of Interwave - AM78C201AKC and TEA6330T fader. Produced by STB Systems.
• STB Systems Soundrage 32 (Interwave) - standard Interwave card missing SIMM slots and IDE interface. There was "Pro" wariant with 512kB RAM. AM78C201KC chip.
• Dynasonic 3-D/Pro (Interwave) - featured additional DSP chip that offered a graphic equaliser and additional sound FX presets.
• Philips PCA761AW

GF1

The GF1 was co-developed by Advanced Gravis and Forte Technologies (creator of the VFX1 Headgear virtual reality helmet) and produced by ICS under ICS11614 moniker. The chip was actually derived from the Ensoniq OTTO (ES5506) chip, a next-generation version of the music-synthesizer chip found in Ensoniq ESQ-1 and Mirage, as well as the Apple IIGS. This article is about the simulation technology. ... Ensoniq Corp. ... Ensoniq ESQ-1 is a hybrid digital-analog synthesizer released by Ensoniq in 1986. ... Ensoniq Mirage The Ensoniq Corporations Mirage was an 8-bit sampler introduced in 1985. ... The Apple IIGS, the fifth model inception of the Apple II, was the most powerful member of the Apple II series of personal computers made by Apple Computer. ...

The GF1 was purely a sample-based synthesis chip with the polyphony of 32 oscillators, so it could mix up to 32 mono PCM samples (or 16 stereo samples) entirely in hardware. The chip had no built-in codec, so the sounds had to be downloaded to onboard RAM before they could be played back. Sound compression algorithms such as IMA ADPCM were not supported, so compressed samples had to be decompressed prior to loading. Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be similar in structure to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. ... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... PCM is an initialism which can have different meanings: Phase Change Material Pulse-code modulation, a way to digitally encode signals representing sound and their video counterparts Potential Cancer Marker Communist Party of Mexico Plug Compatible Manufacturer Power-train control module, a computer in a car which controls the car... A codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. ... Look up RAM, Ram, ram in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a modulation technique. ...

The sound-quality of the GF1 was not constant, and depended on the selected level of polyphony. A CD-quality 44.1 kHz sample rate was maintainable up to 14-voice polyphony; the sample rate progressively deteriorated until 19.2 kHz at the maximum 32-voice polyphony. The polyphony level was software programmable, so the programmer could choose the appropriate value to best match the application. Advanced sound effects such as reverb and chorus were not supported in hardware, although software simulation was possible (a basic "echo" effect could be simulated with additional tracks, and some trackers could program effects using additional hardware voices as accumulators). A Compact Disc or CD is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio. ... This article is about audio effect. ... A chorus effect is: A condition in the way people perceive similar sounds coming from multiple sources. ... ModPlug Tracker in Fast Tracker 2 colors mode Tracker is the generic term for a class of software music sequencers which, in their purest form, allow the user to arrange sound samples stepwise on a timeline across several monophonic channels. ...

Sample RAM

The Ultrasound offered MIDI playback by loading instrument patches into adapter RAM located on the card, not unlike how instruments are stored in ROM on sample-based 'wavetable' cards. The card came with a 5.6 MB set of instrument patch (*.PAT) files; most the patches were sampled at 16-bit resolution and looped to save space. The patch files were continuously tweaked and updated in each software release. Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. ... Look up RAM, Ram, ram in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. ... In music, the term loop describes a finite element of sound which is repeated by technical means (i. ...

The card's various support programs used .INI files to describe what patches should be loaded for each program change event. This architecture allowed Gravis to incorporate a General MIDI-compatible mapping scheme. Windows 95/98 drivers used Ultrasound. INI to load the patch files on demand. In DOS, the loading of the patches could be handled by UltraMID, a middleware TSR solution provided by Gravis that removed the need to handle the hardware directly. (Programmers were free to include the static version on the UltraMID library in their applications, eliminating the need for the TSR.) The application programmer could choose to preload all patches from disk (resizing as necessary to fit into the Ultrasound's on-board RAM), or have the middleware track the patch change events and dynamically load them on demand. This latter strategy, while providing better sound quality, introduced a noticeable delay when loading patches, so most applications just preloaded a predefined set. This article is about the family of closely related operating systems for the IBM PC compatible platform. ... This article is about integration software. ... Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) is a system call in DOS operating systems that returned control to the system as if the program had quit, but kept the program in memory. ...

Each application could have their own UltraMID.INI which contained a set of patch substitutions for every possible amount of sample RAM (256/512/768/1024 KB), so that similar instruments were used when there was not enough RAM to hold all of the patches needed (even after resampling to smaller sizes), and unused instruments were never loaded. This concept was similar to the handling of sample banks in digital samplers; some games — including Doom, Doom II and Duke Nukem 3D — came with their own optimised UltraMID.INI. An AKAI MPC2000 sampler Playing a Yamaha SU10 Sampler A sampler is an electronic music instrument closely related to a synthesizer. ... Doom (or DOOM)[1] is a 1993 computer game by id Software that is a landmark title in the first-person shooter genre. ... Doom II: Hell on Earth is a first-person shooter video game created by id Software. ... Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by Apogee Software. ...

The Ultrasound cards gained great popularity in the PC tracker music community. The tracker format had existed on the Commodore Amiga since the late 80s, but due to the PC becoming more capable of producing high quality graphics and sound, the demo scene spilled out onto the platform in droves and took the tracker format with it. Typical tracker formats of the era included MOD, S3M and, later, XM. The format stores the notes and the instruments digitally in the file instead of relying on a sound card to reproduce the instruments. A tracker song, when saved to disk, typically incorporates all the sequencing data plus samples, and typically the composer would incorporate his or her assumed name into the list of samples. This primitive precursor to the modern sampler opened the way for Gravis to enter the market, because the requirements matched the capabilities of the GF1 chip ideally. The problem with the other sound cards playing this format was that they had to downmix voices into one or both of its output channels in software, further deteriorating the quality of 8-bit samples in process. An Ultrasound card was able to download the samples to its RAM and mix them using fast and high-quality hardware implementation, offloading the CPU from the task. Gravis realized early on that the demo scene support could be a sales booster and they gave away 6000 cards for free to the most famous scene groups and people in the scene. Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was an American electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which was a vital player in the home/personal computer field in the 1980s. ... This article is about the family of home computers. ... Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ... The demoscene is a computer sub-culture that came to prominence during the rise of the 16 bit micros (the Atari ST and the Amiga), but demos first appeared during the 8-bit era on computers such as C64 and ZX Spectrum. ... For other uses, see Mod. ... S3M is the file format used by the popular ScreamTracker 3 PC music tracker. ... XM, standing for extended module, is an audio file type introduced by Tritons Fast Tracker 2. ... An AKAI MPC2000 sampler Playing a Yamaha SU10 Sampler A sampler is an electronic music instrument closely related to a synthesizer. ... Downmixing is a term used for manipulating audio. ...

See also: Tracker ModPlug Tracker in Fast Tracker 2 colors mode Tracker is the generic term for a class of software music sequencers which, in their purest form, allow the user to arrange sound samples stepwise on a timeline across several monophonic channels. ...

Compatibility

Because the GF1 chip missed the AdLib-compatible OPL2 circuitry and a codec chip, Soundblaster compatibility was difficult to achieve at best. Consumers were expected to learn how to tweak the emulation software used to emulate other standards, an activity not necessary with many other cards that emulated the Soundblaster. The emulation software ran as a huge TSR that was difficult to manage in pre-Windows days of complicated DOS extenders. The Yamaha YM3812 also known as the OPL2 (OPL is an acronym for FM Operator Type-L) is a sound chip (i. ... A codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. ... The Sound Blaster family of sound cards was for many years the de facto standard for audio on the IBM PC compatible system platform, before audio has been commoditized. ... Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) is a system call in DOS operating systems that returned control to the system as if the program had quit, but kept the program in memory. ... Tenberry Softwares DOS/4GW startup banner Developed in the 1980s to cope with the memory limitations of MS-DOS and its derivatives, DOS extenders are programs which enable software to run under the protected mode environment initially introduced with the Intel 80286 processor and later expanded upon with the...

Although there was native support for many popular games which used middleware sound libraries like HMI Sound Operating System, the Miles Audio Interface Libraries (AIL), the Miles Sound System and the likes, the user had to patch the games by replacing the existing sound drivers with Ultrasound version provided on the installation CD. Also, the GUS required two DMA channels for full-duplex operation, and 16-bit channels were generally faster so many users chose to use them, but this led to errors for games that used the DOS/4GW DOS extender, which was common in the Ultrasound's era. Miles Sound System is a two-dimensional sound software system primarily for computer games and used mostly as an alternative for low-end audio chipsets. ... Direct memory access (DMA) is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory for reading and/or writing independently of the central processing unit. ... In telecommunications, duplex means two-way when referring to communications channels. ... DOS/4GW is the most widely used 32-bit DOS extender, designed to allow DOS programs to eliminate the inherent DOS 640KB memory limit by addressing all the extended memory on Intel 80386 and above machines in MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS, the DOS boxes of OS/2, Windows...

The two principal sound emulators included with software package were:

• SBOS, Sound Board OS — SB Pro 8-bit Stereo emulation and AdLib FM synthesis. It was a real-mode software emulation that recreated the OPL 2-operator synthesis and required at least i286 processor. There were special versions for GUS MAX (MAXSBOS) and AMD InterWave (IWSBOS), which made use of the CS4231 codec chip.
• Mega-Em — advanced emulation software that required an i386 processor and EMM manager with DPMI/VCPI support. Emulated 8-bit Sound Blaster for sound effects and MT-32/LAPC-1, Roland Sound Canvas/MPU-401 for music synthesis. Supported UltraMID TSR functionality.

AdLib, Inc. ... The Intel 80286 is an x86-family 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced by Intel on February 1, 1982. ... The Intel 80386 is a microprocessor which was used as the central processing unit (CPU) of many personal computers from 1986 until 1994 and later. ... EMM may mean: Expanded Memory Manager, see Expanded memory EMM, a Dow-Jones stock code for Wilshire Mid Cap Index Eastern Mennonite Missions, the mission agency of Lancaster Conference of the Mennonite Church, [1] Experimental and Molecular Medicine, [2] Episcopal Migration Ministries, [3] Enterprise Metrics Management, IBM Enterprise Metrics Management... DPMI is the method which Microsoft prescribes for a DOS program to run in protected mode and to access extended memory under a multitasking operating system like Microsoft Windows. ... DPMI is the method which Microsoft prescribes for a DOS program to run in protected mode and to access extended memory under a multitasking operating system like Microsoft Windows. ... The Roland MT-32 is a MIDI synthesizer module first released in 1987 by the Roland Corporation. ... The Roland LAPC-I is a sound card for IBM PC compatibles, first introduced in 1988 by Roland Corporation. ... Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas The Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas is a MIDI synthesizer module released in 1991 by Roland Corporation. ... The MPU-401, where MPU stands for MIDI Processing Unit, is an important but now obsolescent standard for MIDI interfaces on the PC platform. ...

Developer support

The GF1's sample-based architecture was both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it gave it the potential to produce arcade-class music and sound (with proper application support.) In stark contrast to the competing Creative Labs Soundblaster, which generated music through FM-synthesis, the GF1 produced music through playback of digitized audio samples. PC gamers and amateur musicians (such as demoscene coders) who heard the Gravis in action, immediately fell in love with it. Compared to the Creative Labs Soundblaster, the Gravis could produce far more acoustic complex game audio, while the sample-RAM opened the doors to near unlimited compositional creativity. Unfortunately, most PC software had audio-engines designed and implemented for the Sound Blaster programming model: which is to say: FM-synthesis for frequent music and sound effects, with an occasional PCM sample for rare high-value effects. At this time, many DOS game developers had already adopted Middleware audio packages (such as Miles Audio Design), to remove them from the burden of writing low-level audio routines. For most developers, exploiting the Gravis's PCM capabilities would have required a switch to complete rewrite or additional, dedicated codebase. Regrettably, application support for the GF1 was slow in coming, and sparse. Most adhered to the Soundblaster programming model, using the Gravis for improved MIDI playback, while retaining the occasional PCM audio effect Only a handful of games supported the Gravis native-mode for 'freeform' PCM playback, and to great effect (such as Star Control 2.) This article is about the family of closely related operating systems for the IBM PC compatible platform. ... The Star Control series is a trilogy of computer games with a cult following. ...

The GF1 was also very easy to program for after the initial learning phase. Since the GF1 played samples from sample-RAM, once the samples were uploaded, the PC could free the system memory for other tasks. Programming for the GF1 was pretty much a case of fire-and-forget — upload your samples, tell it what to do, and off it went without much further administration from the programmer (a viewpoint disputed by some sound engineers from various game publishers). In principle, authoring software for the Gravis required minimal (PC) conventional memory overhead (without resorting to expanded memory, extended memory, or protected mode). Conventional memory is the first 640 kibibytes of an IBM PCs memory. ... Expanded Memory was a trick invented around 1984 that provided more memory to byte-hungry, business-oriented MS-DOS programs. ... Extended memory refers to memory above the first megabyte of address space in an IBM PC with an 80286 or later processor. ... Protected mode is an operational mode of x86-compatible CPUs of the 80286 series or later. ...

AMD InterWave

The great potential of the original Ultrasound enabled Advanced Gravis to license the new GFA1 chip and software to AMD, who were trying to make it into the sound chip market at the time. The chip, released in 1995, was named AMaDeus, with the AMD part number of Am78C201 and was marketed as InterWave. It was enhanced to handle up to 16 MB of onboard memory, IMA ADPCM-compressed samples, have no sample rate drop at full 32 voices, and featured additional logic to support hardware emulation of FM synthesis and simple delay-based digital sound effects such as reverb and chorus. It was compatible with CS4231 codec installed in the Ultrasound MAX or 16-bit recording daughterboard for the Ultrasound Classic. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Ima is the debut album by electronica artist Brian Transeau, also known as BT. It was released in 1995. ... Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a modulation technique. ... The sampling frequency or sampling rate defines the number of samples per second taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. ...

The sound "patch set" was reworked from a collection of individual instrument .PAT files to a unified .FFF/.DAT sound bank format, resembling SoundFont, which could be either ROM or RAM based. There were 4 versions of the sound bank: a full 16-bit 4 MB with 8-bit downsampled 2 MB version, and 16-bit 2 MB (different sample looping) with 8-bit downsampled 1 MB version. A converter utility, GIPC, was provided for making .FFF/.DAT banks out of .PAT/.INI collections. SoundFont is a brand name that collectively refers to a file format and associated technology designed to bridge the gap between recorded and synthesized audio, especially for the purposes of computer music composition. ... This article is about reusing existing sound recordings in creating new works. ...

The reference card contained 1 MB μ-law ADPCM compressed sound ROM, which contained basic General MIDI voices and sound samples to help FM emulation, and 2 slots for RAM expansion through 30-pin SIMMs. The IWSBOS emulator was reworked to include Mega-Em features such as General MIDI emulation, and the SBOS kernel was included in Windows 95 drivers to provide emulation in a DOS Box window. In telecommunication, a mu-law algorithm (μ-law) is a standard analog signal compression or companding algorithm, used in digital communications systems of the North American and Japanese digital hierarchies, to optimize (in other words, modify) the dynamic range of an audio analog signal prior to digitizing. ... General MIDI or GM is a specification for synthesizers which imposes several requirements beyond the more abstract MIDI standard. ... 30- (top) and 72-pin (bottom) SIMMs. ... VDM is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below: Vienna Development Method, a formal software development method. ...

The process of patching middleware sound 'drivers' was greatly simplified with PREPGAME utility, which could fix most known DOS games automatically either by correctly installing and configuring native InterWave drivers or replacing the binaries for some rare devices like Covox. It could also update DOS/4GW extender to work around its 16-bit DMA bug. The Covox Speech Thing (also known as Covox plug) was a piece of computer periphery used to output digital sound. ... DOS/4GW is the most widely used 32-bit DOS extender, designed to allow DOS programs to eliminate the inherent DOS 640KB memory limit by addressing all the extended memory on Intel 80386 and above machines in MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS, the DOS boxes of OS/2, Windows...

The GFA1 featured a GUS/MAX compatibility mode, but base card was not compatible with Ultrasound Classic unless some memory was installed.

The InterWave technology was used in Gravis Ultrasound PnP line of cards. It was also licensed to various OEMs such as STB Systems, Reveal, Compaq, Dynasonic and ExpertColor. Some high-end OEM variants contained full-blown 4 MB patch set in ROM and proprietary hardware DSPs to enable features like additional sound effect algorithms and graphic equalizer. Plug and Play is a term used in the computer field to describe a computers ability to have new devices, normally peripherals, added to it without having to restart the computer. ... Original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, is a term that refers to containment-based re-branding, namely where one company uses a component of another company within its product, or sells the product of another company under its own brand. ... Compaq Computer Corporation is an American personal computer company founded in 1982, and now a brand name of Hewlett-Packard. ... The abbreviation DSP can refer to: // Digital signal processing, the study of signals in a digital representation and their processing methods Digital signal processor, a specialized microprocessor designed specifically for digital signal processing Dylan Server Pages, a web template engine using the Dylan language Delivery Service Partner, a type of... In audio processing, equalization (EQ) is the process of modifying the frequency envelope of a sound. ...

Software drivers for the InterWave were written by eTek Labs, containing the same development team as the earlier Forte Technologies effort. eTek Labs was split off from Forte Technologies just prior to this effort. In August of 1999, eTek Labs was acquired by Belkin and is currently their research and development team. Belkin International, Inc. ...

Demise

Despite the groundbreaking features, the Gravis's unique sample-RAM architecture proved too much for the industry. Some game developers of the time noted problems with the software development kit and the product's hardware design. On the user-side, the Sound Blaster emulation was especially hard to get right out of the box, and this resulted in a substantially high number of product returns at the store level and thus soured the retail channel on the product. Bundled software was refined over time, but Gravis could not distribute updates effectively.

The company itself also created its own trouble. When Gravis's list of promised supporting game titles failed to materialize, the company lost credibility with consumers and commercial developers. Several publishers and developers threatened to sue the company over misrepresentation of their products — pointing to outright fabrication of Gravis's list.

The shareware games industry embraced the Gravis more than the retail games industry. Famous companies which did this in an early stage were publisher Apogee and developers id software and Epic Megagames. Gravis can also claim victory in the demo scene, which had taken the GUS to its heart, ensuring a dedicated, cult following for a number of years. But without the marketing and developer presence of Creative Labs, Gravis could not generate either the sales or support required for the Gravis soundcard to compete in the mainstream market against the de-facto standard Soundblaster. Corporate logo of Apogee Software Apogee Software, Ltd. ... id Software (IPA: officially, though originally ) is an American computer game developer based in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. ... Epic Games, formerly known as Epic MegaGames and also known as Epic, is a computer game development company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. ...

If Advanced Gravis had been able to hold out for a few more years, until Windows 95 finally supplanted DOS as a platform for gaming, then the story might have had a happier ending, because the burden of supporting it would have been carried by its Windows driver alone. However, it did not happen. Although the InterWave chip was a substantially improved version of the GF1 chip, this new design was not able to hold up with the Sound Blaster AWE32. More than that, AMD was facing financial troubles at the time so it was forced to close many projects, including the InterWave. Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ... This article is about the family of closely related operating systems for the IBM PC compatible platform. ... Sound Blaster AWE32 is an ISA sound card from Creative Technology. ...

Due to dwindling sales, Gravis was eventually forced out of the soundcard business. As it turned out, however, the Ultrasound's failure nearly took the entire company down with it. Advanced Gravis, once one of the dominant players in the PC peripherals marketplace, had bet much of the future of the company on the Ultrasound and paid the price for its demise. Shareholders sued the company charging gross incompetence by its management, in regards to the entire Ultrasound effort. After significant restructuring, including acquisition by competitor Kensington Technology Group (via its parent, ACCO World Corp), the company retreated to its core-market, the one which had made it a success — joysticks and gamepads. Kensington Technology Group is a devision brand of ACCO Brands, Inc. ...

Trivia

• When SBOS or IWSBOS start up, the speech sample "S.B.O.S. Installed" is voiced by Paul Travers, founder of Forte Technologies and eTek Labs.

• Prototype of GUS ACE card with green PCB was named Gravis Soundbuddy. This card was eBayed in 2004.

• Mega-Em was originally created by a programmer from Australia named Jayeson Lee-Steere. Gravis liked it so much that they hired him. Mega-Em was quickly incorporated into the GUS as an official and supported driver.

See also

• DOSBox – DOS emulator that contains built-in emulation of the GUS

DOSBox is a program that emulates an Intel x86 computer running MS-DOS. It is intended for running DOS-based IBM PC compatible programs, especially computer games, which may not run properly on newer PCs and may not run at all on non-x86 hardware or operating systems (e. ...

Sources

• History of MIDI

External links

• Gravis.com (redirects to http://us.kensington.com)
• The History of PC Game MIDI by Eric Wing
• GUS Emulator
• Gravis UltraSound WDM Driver Project
• FreePats – a free collection of GUS-compatible patches by Eric A. Welsh
• TiMidity++ – a software MIDI synthesizer which can use GUS patches
• GUS Museum (Czech) - pictures of prototype cards
• Phonomenal... a retrospective view on sound card history