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There are two distinct types of PC sound output hardware:
(although if extra shells are loaded in DOS you will not hear it). |
For second processor cards the best results are obtained
from the Minnie 16-bit audio card by ESP, and adding the SoundBlaster Emulation
software. This presents complete SoundBlaster hardware to the PC so that
all Windows and much DOS software can be expected to work in 8 or 16 bits.
The hardware is £60
plus VAT: software prices are not currently available – contact Aleph One.
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The Aleph One PC cards (except for the Mark I second processor
card) generate sound from the on-board PC motherboard chip in the same
way as a normal PC does. In order to hear this sound through the host computer’s
loudspeaker you must link the two sound systems together using a cable.
We can supply you with a suitable cable for £5 plus VAT. Details
of how to construct and connect a cable are given in Appendix B.
To play .WAV files under Windows you will need the SPEAKER.DRV speaker
driver from Microsoft. This is now included in this release as a DOS self-extracting
archive in the file SPEAK/EXE. Copy this to a DOS floppy disc or a hard
disc directory and run it to extract the files. Then read the text files
for details of installing the driver. This file is not included with Mark
I second processor cards as there is no speaker output.
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To get SoundBlaster sound from an expansion card you will
need to fit a parallel port sound adaptor. There are several available.
The Audio-port by Media Vision Inc. The output is 8-bit mono 2-22kHz, so the sound quality is not particularly high, but sufficient for many applications. It has an internal speaker and a 3.5mm jack socket, a microphone socket for digitising sound and a Windows 3.1 device driver which gives SoundBlaster, Adlib and ThunderBoard compatibility under Windows in Enhanced mode. It supports DOS applications running under Windows, but not DOS applications on their own. It can be obtained from companies supplying the PC market, at about £60 plus VAT. The Logitech AudioMan is a similar 8-bit device with a built in microphone. >This has instructions tailored for use with the Risc PC. It has a built-in unidirectional microphone, and records at 11Khz. It is an 8-bit mono device, and plays at 22KHz. Drivers for playing .WAV files under Windows are supplied. There is no DOS support. It costs £85. Desktop Laminations: PO Box 332 BRISTOL, BS99 7XL (0117 979 9979). The Port.able Sound Plus from Digispeech Inc. supports 8 or 16 bits per channel and filetypes such as DVI(IMA), ADPCM, OKI ADPCM and SoundBlaster ADPCM. It can generate simultaneous synthesised music and digitised audio playback with multiple voices. Sockets are provided for stereo audio output to headphones (3.5 mm), audio input from CD-ROM, and a (supplied) mono loudspeaker plus microphone unit. DOS and Windows device drivers are included. It can be obtained from, for example, Innovative Communications Ltd, Kinetic Business Centre, Theobald Street BOREHAMWOOD WD6 4SE. Tel 0181 953 0948 at about £120 plus VAT. |
Aleph One Ltd. | 58-60 |
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