First post, by Dant
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As of late, I have decided that I haven't been much for dealing with most of the hassles of building a DOS and/or Win9x rig from the ground up. (Sad, but true, I just don't really have time for it anymore)
Recently, I have begun looking into IBM's old Thinkpad laptop line, for some good DOS and maybe Win9x compatible desktop replacements.
Currently I have been eyeing an Thinkpad 755CD, in very good condition, and with all of the cables, including the Gameport adapter and the cables for the built-in capture card. Admittedly, though A DX4 is just a little slow for my tastes, not much but just a little.
So considering my other options in other speed ranges, I found it rather interesting how long it seemed IBM wanted to keep some form of SB compatibility, so I present to you the Thinkpad A31, the most powerful laptop with 'supposed' Sound Blaster support IBM, and quite possible anyone else, ever made.
Specs:http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:A31p
It uses a Mobile Pentium 4 for it's CPU, which go up to 2.6Ghz if you have the patience and cash to get one that fast.
It will take 2GB of RAM.
There are two modular bays in it, meaning ridiculous configuration options...
There are working drivers in some form for every version of Windows from 95 to Windows 7.
Now the most interesting feature, despite coming from 2002, every specs sheet, review, and what have you seems to claim that the audio hardware in this beast is Sound Blaster Pro compatible.
Personally, I am beginning to dispute this claim.
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/AD1881A
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc= … 6B0UX_sSoNcAk7Q
Just two links to info on the AC'97 hardware in the A31p. Notice something missing? How about any semblance of Sound Blaster compatibility?
After seeing this, I assumed that the solution was likely some emulation being done on the driver side in Win9x, but with the complete lack of documentation on it, as well as the fact that no one seems to have even tried it...
Being IBM though, I could see them having actually found a way to implement SB-compatibility into this tech...
I realize that the vast majority of you are going to dismiss this based on it's relatively recent tech, but does anyone have any idea as to whether these claims are true or not?
