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History of Sound Cards & Digital Audio on PCs from 1980-89

History of Sound Cards & Digital Audio on PCs from 1980-89. March 26 th 2004 Updated 5 th April 2004 Update 31/8/08 Lyndsay Williams Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK. Introduction.

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History of Sound Cards & Digital Audio on PCs from 1980-89

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  1. History of Sound Cards & Digital Audio on PCs from 1980-89 March 26th 2004 Updated 5th April 2004 Update 31/8/08 Lyndsay Williams Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK

  2. Introduction • Chronological history of some of Lyndsay Williams contributions to digital audio for Personal Computers from 1980 • The first soundcard design for a PC discussed • How the lack of patents and Intellectual Property protection enabled widespread acceptance of digital audio on PCs • Mention of possibly the most replicated computer bug in a pc?

  3. Wilmslow 1974, homeLyn’s first designs of music synthesiser - TTL logic

  4. PE Sequencer 1977 Lyndsay Robinson

  5. 3 year interlude – no sound designs • BSc, Hons Biomedical Electronics, University of Salford, UK, 1978- 1980

  6. Research 1980-82 • British Aerospace Woodford, Cheshire – Avionics Engineer, Patented research - noise reduction for Queen’s Flight (accelerometers measure out of phase propeller balance for 748 Aircraft ) (Lyndsay Robinson co-inventor) The Queen's dogs leave an aircraft of The Queen's Flight from Aberdeen at Heathrow Airport. Queen Elizabeth is a keen dog lover, particularly of Corgis, and travels with them, whenever she can. (Associated Press)

  7. Inspiration from Fairlight CMI (1980) • $50,000…

  8. Challenges for digitising audio - 1980 • Research – no prior art published on digital audio capture – none found at Xerox Parc (2004 search ) • How to record audio into a pc? • No private, industrial or university funding support • “what use is recording just 2 seconds of sound with no disc storage?” • Self financed (day job, Avionics Engineer) • Help from UK pioneer Alan Boothman, Clef Products – music designs using Apple computers • Engineering challenges - • Noise in an 8 bit system (analog/digital proximity ) • New algorithms to develop, record sound, play back on a keyboard, real time pitch shifting • Z80 – not powerful, need to signal process every audio sample in 30us (30 instructions) – Z80 assembler • Must be low cost add on for games market (retail £49) • So build a prototype to demo

  9. Fastest 8 bit analog to digital converter – 1979 • Ferranti ZN 427 – 8 bit analog to digital converter • ADC originally used for earthquake and vibration measurement • 10us conversion time • Nearest competitor was 100us • Successive approximation “A method for estimating the value of an unknown quantity by repeated comparison to a sequence of known quantities. “ • Much faster conversion than slope counter • Audio sampling should be > 30us (33khz)

  10. Digital Audio Recording

  11. Digital Audio Digitiser (1982 Lyndsay Robinson)

  12. Pitch Shifting – non real time • Musical interval 1 octave = 1:2 • 1 semitone 1:1.059 (12th root of 2) • Replay sound by incrementing sample pointer by chosen ratio • E.g. to be octave higher , every 2nd sample played • Octave lower – every sample repeated twice • Chromatic keyboard playback • Z80 Assembler

  13. Pitch Shifting - real time (1982) • Effects – real time voice pitch changing = fun! • Also useful – helium - divers voices , Dictaphone speed up • All processing to be done real time in 30us (30 instructions) • Z80 had no multiply • Compression/decompression • Reverse sound, echo • real time pitch shift and echo simultaneously ! • Similar to Xbox voice changer (different algorithm)

  14. TRS-80/Spectrum SoundCard – Published in Practical Computing 1982(Lyndsay Robinson) • Z80 based

  15. Datel – Action Replay(Lyndsay Robinson) • Spectrum Computer add on • New Ferranti ZN427/ 449 analog to digital converter, 8 bit, low cost • Recorded sampled sound with playback, pitch shifting, echo, sound effects, games • Lyn licensed Action Replay Sound Sampler to Datel, Stoke on Trent, UK - 1984 • Sold thousand’s of Samplers • Pre dates .WAV file type • This was first real product for Datel 1984 • Datel now have turnover of $150M/year (2003) – mainly in Xbox peripherals

  16. Commodore Sound Sampler • 1984, gave up the day job (Software Engineer, Ferranti Oil & Gas Platform “C” software) and joined the music business (Commodore Computers (UK) Music Sales/Watts) • Lyn sold design to Music Sales/Commodore Computers (UK) (1984) • Converted Datel design (Z80) to 6502 + MIDI • Added Windows GUI Interface 1984 to Commodore 64 Sampler (Apple Lisa 1983, Microsoft Windows 1985)

  17. Next stage after sampled sound? • Samples fine for games but need more memory for musical instrument samples • Limited sample memory 32kbytes/ 2 seconds = expensive • Monophonic playback due to limited MIPS of Z80, 1Mhz – musicians wanted polyphonic sounds • Yamaha Polyphonic FM chip OPL-1 used in games consoles – 9 channels of sound • Commodore 64 SID chip , only 3 channels of sound • Music Sales (Europe’s largest music publisher ) were first customer to use Yamaha chip for sound card for Commodore 64

  18. Yamaha OPL • FM Synthesis invented by Chowning 1967(Stanford) – commercialised by Yamaha 1983 DX7 Keyboard • Modulated sinewaves • YM3526 first used in Arcade games • YM3526 used in Commodore FM SFX Sound Expander 1985 • 9 channels of 2-operator voices • YM3812 OPL2 (used later by Soundblaster) was an incremental upgrade to the YM3526

  19. Commodore Computers UK, 1986 (Williams, Watts, Music Sales) • Commodore SFX - Music Maker, Sound Studio, Sound Expander – now based on FM Synthesis

  20. Most replicated computer bug?? • Yamaha FM registers in apparently random order (like Japanese House numbers) • Bug found by Williams/Watts in 1985 in YM3526 • Did a workaround so quick time to market for Commodore computers • Bug found again by Linux programmers when trying to emulate Soundblaster registers • 2004 - OPL2 core now integrated into the South Bridge of the motherboard's chipset • Bug now in every PC? (>1 Billion?) • The twenty-two registers (20-35, 40-55, etc.) have an unusual    order due to the use of two operators for each FM voice.    Channel        1 2   3   4   5  6  7   8   9   Operator 1    00  01  02  08  09  0A  10  11  12   Operator 2    03  04  05  0B  0C  0D  13  14  15

  21. Philips MSX Sound Card 1986 (Williams, Watts/ Music Sales) • NMS-1205 • Added 8 bit sampled record and playback , 32Kb • 9 channels FM – Yamaha Y8950 • MIDI, mic in, keyb

  22. Philips MSX FM/Sampler Sound Card

  23. Philips Portable Music Composer – PMC 100 1986 Williams, Watts et al • Wearable Computer • Music Composer • 9 Channels FM Sounds • Drum machine, sequencer, multitrack • 6803 Processor, 8kbyte RAM • MIDI • Cassette for data/voice storage • Can be used like Walkman

  24. First Soundcard for PC? • Sound cards designed for Commodore (64 & Amiga) , Philips, Atari, Spectrum – time to settle on a standard • PC appeared to be a standard for business computers so decided to design soundcard for PC • Design by Williams/Watts/Baker for Olivetti Computers, Italy PC1 –XT clone – 1987 • PC1 - 8088 4.77Mhz, color, mouse, Sound Card – similar to Commodore SFX - FM 8 channels • DOS 3.2

  25. 1987 - Adlib, Sound Blaster & Microsoft • Adlib 1987- just FM Synthesis – first high volume Soundcard • Soundblaster 1988 –YM3812 FM and Sampled Sound • Microsoft asked Yamaha to makes their FM chips available on the open market in 1989 (first customer was Music Sales) so a standard could be enabled • PCB shows Commodore FM board (1986) next to Adlib (1987/90)

  26. Psion Series 5 • Williams responsible for some audio design on Psion Series 5 • Originally mono recording, Williams produced design for stereo Philips stereo DAC (TDA1543?) – for Psion in 1996 • Psion had no compression software – 16Mbyte memory • Williams’ Goal- To allow stereo music playback via headphones – or as minimum hardware platform for future audio • Psion Management had no interest in Williams’ music playback • Fraunhofer released MP3 compression, • Rio Diamond Oct 1998 – first MP3 player • Apple Iphone invented 2001 with staff from Philips • Psion quits handheld computers market 2001 • Some Psion staff work for Apple • Corrections Aug 2008, Williams

  27. Where are they now? • Commodore SFX , Philips, Datel cards –buy on Ebay 2004 • Datel $150M/yr sales – Xbox peripherals • Soundcards – all based on Yamaha FM Sound Chip • No patents or IP protection on the original sound sampling algorithms or FM soundcard implementations

  28. The End - Any Questions ? More on http://research.microsoft.com/users/lyn/soundcard.aspx

  29. Thanks to • Richard Atkinson • Alan Boothman • Colin Robinson (1926-1998) • Trevor Taylor • Chuck Thacker • Richard Watts • Electronic Organ Constructors Society • More info on http://research.microsoft.com/users/lyn/ • Or email Lyndsay Williams lyn@microsoft.com

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