|
Ad Lib, Inc.
Ad Lib, Inc. was a Canadian manufacturer of sound cards and other computer equipment founded by Martin Prevel, a former professor of music and vice-dean of the music department at the Université Laval. The company's best known product, the ''AdLib Music Synthesizer Card'' (''ALMSC''), or simply the ''AdLib'' as it was called, was the first add-on sound card for IBM PC compatible, IBM compatibles to achieve widespread acceptance, becoming the first de facto standard for audio reproduction. History After development work on the AdLib Music Synthesizer Card had concluded, the company struggled to engage the software development community with their new product. As a result, Ad Lib partnered with Top Star Computer Services, Inc., a New Jersey company that provided quality assurance services to game developers. Top Star's President, Rich Heimlich, was sufficiently impressed by a product demonstration in Quebec in 1987 to endorse the product to his top customers. Sierra On-Line's ''Ki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consumer Electronics
Consumer electronics or home electronics are Electronics, electronic (Analogue electronics, analog or digital electronics, digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually referred to as black goods due to many products being housed in black or dark casings. This term is used to distinguish them from "white goods" which are meant for housekeeping tasks, such as washing machines and refrigerators, although nowadays, these would be considered black goods, some of these being connected to the Internet. In British English, they are often called brown goods by producers and sellers. In the 2010s, this distinction is absent in large Big-box store, big box consumer electronics stores, which sell entertainment, communication and home office devices, light fixtures and appliances, including the bathroom type. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yamaha YM3812
The OPL (FM Operator Type-L) series are a family of sound chips developed by Yamaha. The OPL series are low-cost sound chips providing FM synthesis for use in computing, music and video game applications. Internal operation The internal operation of the chips is completely digital. Each FM-tone is generated by a digital oscillator using a form of direct digital synthesis. A low-frequency oscillator and an envelope generator drive an FM operator to produce floating-point output for the DAC. Decapsulation of the chips shows two look-up tables, one for calculating exponents and one for log-sine. This allows the FM operator to calculate its output without any multipliers, using the formula \exp varphi_2_+_\exp_[\log_\sin_[\varphi_1.html" ;"title="log \sin[\varphi_2 + \exp [\log \sin [\varphi_1">log \sin[\varphi_2 + \exp [\log \sin [\varphi_1+ A_1 + A_2] and two 256-entry look-up tables. Both tables are stored as pairs of values rounded to the nearest whole number, with the second va ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interfaces. The SCSI standard defines command sets for specific peripheral device types; the presence of "unknown" as one of these types means that in theory it can be used as an interface to almost any device, but the standard is highly pragmatic and addressed toward commercial requirements. The initial Parallel SCSI was most commonly used for hard disk drives and tape drives, but it can connect a wide range of other devices, including scanners and CD drives, although not all controllers can handle all devices. The ancestral SCSI standard, X3.131-1986, generally referred to as SCSI-1, was published by the X3T9 technical committee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1986. SCSI-2 was published in August 1990 as X3.T9.2/86-109 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yamaha YMF262
The OPL (FM Operator Type-L) series are a family of sound chips developed by Yamaha. The OPL series are low-cost sound chips providing FM synthesis for use in computing, music and video game applications. Internal operation The internal operation of the chips is completely digital. Each FM-tone is generated by a digital oscillator using a form of direct digital synthesis. A low-frequency oscillator and an envelope generator drive an FM operator to produce floating-point output for the DAC. Decapsulation of the chips shows two look-up tables, one for calculating exponents and one for log-sine. This allows the FM operator to calculate its output without any multipliers, using the formula \exp varphi_2_+_\exp_[\log_\sin_[\varphi_1.html" ;"title="log \sin[\varphi_2 + \exp [\log \sin [\varphi_1">log \sin[\varphi_2 + \exp [\log \sin [\varphi_1+ A_1 + A_2] and two 256-entry look-up tables. Both tables are stored as pairs of values rounded to the nearest whole number, with the second ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stereo
Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration of two loudspeakers (or stereo headphones) in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing. Because the multi-dimensional perspective is the crucial aspect, the term ''stereophonic'' also applies to systems with more than two channels or speakers such as quadraphonic and surround sound. Binaural sound systems are also ''stereophonic''. Stereo sound has been in common use since the 1970s in entertainment media such as broadcast radio, recorded music, television, video cameras, cinema, computer audio, and internet. Etymology The word ''stereophonic'' derives from the Greek (''stereós'', "firm, solid") + (''phōnḗ'', "sound, tone, voice") and it was coined in 1927 by Western E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potentiometer
A potentiometer is a three- terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. The measuring instrument called a potentiometer is essentially a voltage divider used for measuring electric potential (voltage); the component is an implementation of the same principle, hence its name. Potentiometers are commonly used to control electrical devices such as volume controls on audio equipment. Potentiometers operated by a mechanism can be used as position transducers, for example, in a joystick. Potentiometers are rarely used to directly control significant power (more than a watt), since the power dissipated in the potentiometer would be comparable to the power in the controlled load. Nomenclature There are a number of terms in the electronics industry used to describe certain types of potentiometers: * slide pot or slider pot: a potentiome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Micro Channel Architecture
Micro Channel architecture, or the Micro Channel bus, is a proprietary 16- or 32-bit parallel computer bus introduced by IBM in 1987 which was used on PS/2 and other computers until the mid-1990s. Its name is commonly abbreviated as "MCA", although not by IBM. In IBM products, it superseded the ISA bus and was itself subsequently superseded by the PCI bus architecture. Background The development of Micro Channel was driven by both technical and business pressures. Technology The IBM AT bus, which later became known as the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, had a number of technical design limitations, including: * A slow bus speed. * A limited number of interrupts, fixed in hardware. * A limited number of I/O device addresses, also fixed in hardware. * Hardwired and complex configuration with no conflict resolution. * Deep links to the architecture of the 80x86 chip familyUse of the ISA bus outside of machines employing the 80x86 CPU family was rare. Notable non ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phone Connector (audio)
A phone connector, also known as phone jack, audio jack, headphone jack or jack plug, is a family of electrical connectors typically used for analog signal, analog audio signals. A plug, the Gender of connectors and fasteners, male connector, is inserted into the jack, the female connector. The phone connector was invented for use in telephone switchboards in the 19th century and is still widely used. The phone connector is cylindrical in shape, with a grooved tip to retain it. In its original audio configuration, it typically has two, three, four or, occasionally, five contacts. Three-contact versions are known as ''TRS connectors'', where ''T'' stands for Tip and ring, "tip", ''R'' stands for Tip and ring, "ring" and ''S'' stands for "sleeve". Ring contacts are typically the same diameter as the sleeve, the long shank. Similarly, two-, four- and five-contact versions are called ''TS'', ''TRRS'' and ''TRRRS connectors'' respectively. The outside diameter of the "sleeve" c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Home Of The Underdogs
Home of the Underdogs (often called HotU) is an abandonware archive founded by Sarinee Achavanuntakul, in October 1998. Before shutting down the original version in 2009, the site provided reviews for over 5,300 games and offered downloads of software and manuals for a number of games that were no longer commercially available. This allowed it to be a valuable resource to players who lost the original discs or manuals. While a majority of games available on the site were for DOS or Microsoft Windows, the site also contained a section with games for other platforms. Where downloads for these games were provided, they were usually present in formats compatible with emulators. The site also had scans of several gamebook series, many of them complete. In addition to commercial titles, the site contained hundreds of freeware titles. History Homeoftheunderdogs.org Achavanuntakul, a Thai journalist, had been in the United States at that time and wanted to play MicroProse's 1989 title ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F-15 Strike Eagle II
''F-15 Strike Eagle II'' is an F-15E Strike Eagle combat flight simulator released in 1989 by MicroProse and is the sequel of '' F-15 Strike Eagle''. It was followed in 1992 by '' F-15 Strike Eagle III'', the final game of the series. The fighter is equipped with a M61 Vulcan and three different kinds of missiles, Sidewinders, AMRAAMs and Mavericks. In ''F-15 Strike Eagle II'' comes with four scenarios: Libya, Persian Gulf, Vietnam and Middle East. In a mission the player has to fight a variety of enemy aircraft, missile boats, satellite stations and other ground targets, to take out one primary and one secondary target, making sure to not attack friendly targets. Promotions and medals are based on the mission score. ''Strike Eagle II'' was very similar in both appearance and game play to MicroProse's previous release, '' F-19 Stealth Fighter''. Like many flight simulators of the time, realism was at times sacrificed due to either computing requirements or playability. In 1991 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MicroProse
MicroProse is an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization'' and '' X-COM'' series. Most of their internally developed titles were vehicle simulation and strategy games. In 1993, the company lost most of its UK-based personnel and became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte. Subsequent cuts and corporate policies led to Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds leaving and forming Firaxis Games in 1996, as MicroProse closed its ex-Simtex development studio in Austin, Texas. In 1998, following an unsuccessful buyout attempt by GT Interactive, the struggling MicroProse (Spectrum HoloByte) became a wholly owned subsidiary of Hasbro Interactive and its development studios in Alameda, California and Chapel Hill, North Carolina were closed the following year. In 2001, MicroProse ceased to exist as an entity and Hasbro Interactive sold the MicroPr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Multitimbral
Monotimbral (from the root prefix ''mono'' meaning one, and ''timbre'' meaning a specific tone of a sound independent of its pitch) is usually used in reference to electronic synthesizers which can produce a single timbre at a given pitch when pressing one key (if the synth is monophonic) or multiple keys (if the synth is polyphonic). An electronic musical instrument may be multitimbral, which means it can produce two or more ''timbres'' (also called ''sounds'' or ''patches'') at the same time. Instruments which may be multitimbral include synthesizers, samplers, and music workstations. A multitimbral instrument might be configurable in a variety of ways: *Splitting the keyboard at a given point allows a musician to play, for example, a bass guitar sound with the left hand and a piano sound with the right hand. *Layering timbres allows a musician to play, for example, a pipe organ sound and a string ensemble sound together. *Combinations of keyboard splits and layers may be poss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
