Mwave was a technology developed by IBM allowing for the combination of

telephony Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is i ...

and

sound card A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term ''sound card'' is also applied to external audio ...

features on a single adapter card. The technology centers around the Mwave digital signal processor (DSP). The technology was used for a time to provide a combination modem and sound card for IBM's

Aptiva The IBM Aptiva personal computer was introduced in September 1994 as the replacement for the IBM PS/1. The first Aptiva models were based on the Intel 80486 CPU with later models using the Pentium and AMD CPUs. All systems were developed in-hou ...

line and some

ThinkPad ThinkPad is a line of business-oriented laptop computers and tablets designed, developed and marketed by Lenovo, and formerly by IBM until 2005, when IBM's PC business was acquired by Lenovo. ThinkPads have a distinct black, boxy design la ...

laptops, in addition to uses on specialized Mwave cards that handled voice recognition or ISDN networking connectivity. Similar adapter cards by third-party vendors using Mwave technology were also sold. However, plagued by consumer complaints about buggy Mwave

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

and hardware, IBM eventually turned to other audio and telephony solutions for its consumer products.

History

Malcolm Ware, a former developer on Mwave, dates the technology back to its development in an IBM research lab in Zurich, Switzerland in 1979. The first prototype was tested in an IBM PC in 1981. After being utilized in some other adapter cards, Mwave was given its official name and used in IBM's WindSurfer ISA/ MCA card. IBM manufactured Mwave hardware for both Microsoft Windows and its own

OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 r ...

. Another revision of the technology was used in IBM's newly renamed Aptiva line. One of the revisions of the Mwave card was the Mwave Dolphin. The card was an ISA legacy card that did not support

plug and play In computing, a plug and play (PnP) device or computer bus is one with a specification that facilitates the recognition of a hardware component in a system without the need for physical device configuration or user intervention in resolving resou ...

and natively supported Windows through its software. It featured a 28.8 k/second fax/modem and a

Sound Blaster Sound Blaster is a family of sound cards designed by Singaporean technology company Creative Technology (known in the US as Creative Labs). Sound Blaster sound cards were the de facto standard for consumer audio on the IBM PC compatible system pl ...

-compatible audio solution. One of the card's most publicized features was its software upgradeability: a version of the Mwave software upgraded the modem function to 33.6k. In addition, the card was key in the support of some of the Aptiva's Rapid Resume features, including Wake-up On Ring. There were various consumer complaints with users reporting problems involving either the sound or modem features separately, or using both at the same time. Some consumers were offered a check for the purchase of hardware to replace the Mwave card, while others were offered a replacement modem, sound card or both. At one point, a

class action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

was filed; it was finally settled in 2001. Mwave Dolphin drivers version 20D and the Stingray version of the Mwave adapter addressed some shortcomings of the Dolphin (Stingray added

support), but IBM eventually stopped using the Mwave adapter card in its Aptiva computers and resorted to conventional sound card and modem options. Mwave in some form or another has been produced for the MCA, ISA and PCMCIA

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

ses. Select ThinkPad 600 and 770 models had a PCI version integrated (the Mwave chip integrated in select ThinkPad 755, 760 and 765 models was ISA-based). Certain Sun Sparcstation workstations incorporated the Mwave DSP chip for sound card functionality. Although Mwave adapter cards were discontinued, a

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

driver for the PCI-based Mwave in the ThinkPad 600 and 770 models was developed and released by IBM.

References

;Notes * *

External links

Ted Felix's Mwave pageMwave MDSP2780
as used in select ThinkPad 755, 760 and 765 models, at ThinkWiki.org
Mwave MDSP3780
as used in select ThinkPad 600 and 770 models, at ThinkWiki.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibm Mwave

Mwave Mwave was a technology developed by IBM allowing for the combination of telephony and sound card features on a single adapter card. The technology centers around the Mwave digital signal processor (DSP). The technology was used for a time to pr ...

Digital signal processors

History

See also

References

External links