Elianda also had a nice approach in mind ...
1) slap an Intel Edison on an ISA board
2) port the relevant parts of DOSBox onto the card
3) map virtual outputs to physical outputs
4) ...
5) profit!

Hardware wise it would pretty much be a software controlled multiemulator card (meaning it could be a GUS for one game, then a CMS for the next - without the need to reset). Works for me, but no coding expertise nor actual knowledge about the Intel Edison.

Some minor progress:

EDIT: Image exchanged with even more progress.

Great !

not really excited for a fpga implementation of soundcards but the layout above is really cool 😁

It looks really nice 😀

More good news: AM78C201KC chips can be obtained for $7
512kb SOJ RAMs I still have ~40 pieces at my parents place, which I can give away for cheap.

About the project itself ... seeing how the 1MB ROM content is still copyrighted (and I'm not sure if the IW78C21M1 chips come factory pre-programmed), I will be able to offer kits or partially finished boards at most, leading to a situation similar to the MUNT emulator.
I guess offering pre-assembled cards on a very small scale would theoretically be possible if you can somehow prove that you own a commercial card with the ROM on it (meaning that you bought it at one point) - I guess a photo of your card with your nickname and date would be sufficient.

If all goes as intended I will probably produce a small batch for the folks who got involved in this project (here's your chance to sell me any GUS at a fair price and get a clone once they're done at the price of my expenses [probably around $40]).

Oh and just to name them conviently ... here're the aims of this project (in order of priority - keep in mind some or short term goals, other long term ones):
- add up to 1MB RAM on board (2x 512kb SOJ chips ... possibly a DIP variant might be done or added as an option on board)
- allow users to choose whether they have the 1MB or 4MB of the ROM on board
- replace the IW78C21M1 chip with an off the shelf (flash) ROM
- add PCB footprints for SMD and DIP variants of the ROM chips (sample ROM and PnP ROM - SMD is more neat, but DIP easier to replace once a flash/programming attempt goes horribly wrong)
- allow users to add up to 16MB of RAM (probably as a single 72pin stick, rather than 4 30pin sticks, as this keeps the PCB smaller and 72pin sticks being a lot easier to obtain)
- change 0805 SMD passives to 1206 SMD (which can be conviently soldered by hand ... or put DIP parts in their place)
- add a nice UltraSound Logo on the silk screen

Great update!

Let me comment on it point by point:
1. Do you consider installing AM78C201AKC instead of AM78C201KC? The AKC revision is later and better, I suppose.
2. The copyright of the ROM belongs to EYE & I Productions - Voice Crystal (http://www.voicecrystal.com/). As they still sell the 4Mb ROM as a SF2 soundfont, I would probably recommend you to introduce a second option of copyright approval - a proof of purchase of that SF2 directly from EYE & I Productions.
3. I am very much interested in buying the final card (or even two or three of them for the sake of hoarding), I will be able to provide a photo proof (as you described) this weekend.
4. AM78C201KC treats a SOJ as 2 banks. 2 SOJ sockets will take all 4 banks. A SIMM72 socket is regarded as all 4 banks also. Thus a jumper should be provided for switching between the SIMM72 and 2 SOJs in order to prevent possible damage if a user tries to use all possible options simultaneously.
5. A DIP socket for flash ROM will be great, it will meet 3 targets:
- you will be able to ship preassembled boards without onboard ROM (or with blank chip) in case a buyer doesn't provide copyright proof,
- user will be able to choose between 1MB and 4MB of ROM,
- ROM can be easily changed if something goes wrong during flashing.
6. Taking the previous point into account, I guess the SMD variant is not needed (while only consuming space on the PCB).
7. SIMM72 is surely the way to go! 4 SIMM30 sockets will consume a lot of space, 4 sockets will cost more than 1 socket, 4 4Mb SIMM30 modules may cost a fortune nowadays (and a 16Mb SIMM72 will be cheap - and AM78C201KC has no problems with EDO memory, thus a single (not paired!) 16Mb EDO SIMM72 may be even cheaper as they are almost always used in pair).
8. I can provide you with a nice pack of Gravis artwork (including the old UltraSound Logo), all in vector format. Just PM me your e-mail, and you'll have it all.
9. I wanted to buy a working GUS PnP from Amibay for the sake of the project, but I'm short of money currently. If you want, I will publicly withdraw my interest in the corresponding thread.

75€ or 85€ for a GUS PnP on Amibay, 65€ for a classic ... yeah right, that's worse than eBay. I remembered that place being a rip-off and now I know why. For anyone reading along and possibly considering getting involved - my target price for an original GUS is 40€ at most (I guess I should have kept some from 2009, as roughly 15 GUS cards have passed my hands, as I used to collect PC soundcards).
Ah, found the thread with the broken ones ... hm, I'll declare interest I guess

I'll send you my e-mail for the Ultrasound logos 😀 Really appreciated.

Just sent you an e-mail with all the mentioned artwork and stuff 😀

Also, just for your reference: a suitable SIMM72 socket example is Tyco (ex-AMP) p/n 5822134-3.
Tyco was extremely nice and sent me 10 free samples of those for my GUS PnP Pro SIMM adapters, you may also request some, but note that you will be asked to provide an end-user website for your project (if you request more than 1 piece of any particular component).
Considering the project as non-commercial, I think, we could cooperate and create such simple website in order to get a small batch of those sockets, as they are one of the most expensive and hard to find passive components required for the project.

why not put 16mb onboard already?
The GUS synthesizer supports up to 1 Mbyte of local memory for storing wavetable data.
The InterWave synthesizer can address up to 4 Mbytes of ROM for wavetable data and up
to 16 Mbytes of DRAM for wavetable data and local memory FIFOs.

Added an awesome UltraSound Logo, courtesy of hard1k

Otherwise fixed the card's outline, added more credits (marmes, hard1k, necros [for his awesome music]), added "easter egg" on top copper.

Already thought about starting a blog for this project, so the subforum doesn't get pestered with constant bumps due to minor updates 😉
Putting 16MB RAM directly on the board ... definitely an option, but will check prices for that first and how the bank switching goes (I think I remember the GUS PnP differentiating between RAM onboard and in the slots - gotta have to admit I've barely looked into the datasheets/schematic so far ... wanna finish redrawing first).

I will try to get a full gravis pnp also.
It would also be interesting to see the cs4231 datasheet from crystal. Prelude soundcard on amiga has an awesome sound, copying the preamps would be something nice 😀

Marmes wrote:

It would also be interesting to see the cs4231 datasheet from crystal.

http://www.datasheetarchive.com/dlmain/Datash … DSAP0010813.pdf
http://www.datasheetarchive.com/dl/Scans-029/ScansU3X356.pdf

Just found this by pure coincidence ... thought it was an interesting find.

Amazing how close the PCA761AW design is. From what I gathered even the partnames seem to be largely identical.

Marmes wrote:

why not put 16mb onboard already? The GUS synthesizer supports up to 1 Mbyte of local memory for storing wavetable data. The In […]
Show full quote

why not put 16mb onboard already?
The GUS synthesizer supports up to 1 Mbyte of local memory for storing wavetable data.
The InterWave synthesizer can address up to 4 Mbytes of ROM for wavetable data and up
to 16 Mbytes of DRAM for wavetable data and local memory FIFOs.

Dear Marmes, I'm afraid I have to correct your statement. Please find attached 3 datasheets for all existing revisions of the InterWave chip, all of them say:

AMD InterWave datasheets wrote:

The wavetable memory can be either DRAM or ROM, or a combination of the two. When DRAM is used, musical instrument “patches” can be swapped in and out as needed. This swapping allows for a smaller, lower-cost wavetable memory. The IC supports up to 16 Mbytes each of DRAM and ROM. Wavetable patches can be 8-bit, 16-bit, or 8-bit μ-law compressed.

But I must admit that no authentic 16Mb ROM images for InterWave have been published. What we have is a 1Mb ROM image and 4Mb RAM bank that might be used successfully as a ROM image, but that needs to be proven.
Meanwhile putting a DIP socket for ROM could create a hypothetical possibility for an advanced user to experiment with other patchsets (including the larger ones).

shock__ wrote:

Already thought about starting a blog for this project, so the subforum doesn't get pestered with constant bumps due to minor updates 😉
Putting 16MB RAM directly on the board ... definitely an option, but will check prices for that first and how the bank switching goes (I think I remember the GUS PnP differentiating between RAM onboard and in the slots - gotta have to admit I've barely looked into the datasheets/schematic so far ... wanna finish redrawing first).

I'd suppose that a blog would be great. To my mind, this project is the most complicated and ambitious so far, and it definitely deserves a blog for its place in DIY hardware history 😀
As far as the GUS RAM issues are concerned, let me recommend you an article to read:
http://web.archive.org/web/19980709192759/htt … pia/16mbgus.htm
Long story short, a GUS PnP Pro sees the onboard 512Kb SOJ as 2 256Kb banks assigning them 0 and 1 numbers. The other 2 and 3 go to 2 SIMM30 sockets. If the onboard memory is disabled, then the 0 and 1 banks go to the sockets and the 2 and 3 remain unused. Placing 16Mb onboard will require all 4 BKSEL lines to go the installed chips, dividing them into equal 4Mb parts with 0-3 banks assigned. All necessary information on the IC pinout is provided in attached datasheets (all revisions are pin-compatible as far as I've understood).

shock__ wrote:

Just found this by pure coincidence ... thought it was an interesting find.
Amazing how close the PCA761AW design is. From what I gathered even the partnames seem to be largely identical.

Do you have this baby on hand?! Or just found a picture online?

Just found the picture online on the vk.com site by the guy who used to run the russian gravisultrasound website.

On the other hand ... I've decided to slow down the project a little as I want to keep the ROM and Interwave chips on my card intact. Waiting to either find someone to borrow me a hot air station for a day or 2 or if that doesn't work out, buy my own in a week or so. In the meanwhile I'll be retracing the output section of the card.

hard1k, seeing you worked with eagle before ... would you have the AM78C201KC chip as a library by chance?

Unfortunately I don't have it, and actually I strongly doubt that it exists.

In addition to the previous discussion about 16Mb of onboard RAM:
IIRC, I've heard some reports about rare compatibility issues when using 16Mb with some applications. Something like "the software is unaware of such amount of installed GUS RAM leading to errors and malfunction". If anybody can confirm this statement, then we'd better choose the SIMM72 variant allowing the end user to install less RAM if he encounters any such problems.

Just another thought that has come to my mind.
All of you know about the GUS PnP XSS InterWave EEPROM Toolz. Does anybody have any idea of the contact information of the author? Maybe we could adapt this masterpiece of software to better reflect the final product we get here?..

shock__ wrote:

the AM78C201KC chip as a library by chance?

For sure you wont find something that specific, but it wont take too much time to make it by yourself considering datasheet availability and standard PQFP160 package

Hyperborean wrote:

shock__ wrote:

the AM78C201KC chip as a library by chance?

For sure you wont find something that specific, but it wont take too much time to make it by yourself considering datasheet availability and standard PQFP160 package

Yeah, I know ... just thought about asking so I don't have to spend my time on that 😉 In case anyone wants to do that ... package is MQFP160 from ref-packages.

Currently redrawing the output/amplifier stage, it's extremely tiresome.