the purpose is to find a usable pci sound card with hardware directsound support, and minimize cpu usage of audio playback.

requirements:
1. driver must be vxd mode, as there is no support for wdm mode in win95.
2. driver must work with 486 cpus.
3. hardware directsound and wave stream support.
4. low cpu usage in wave playback.
5. NO sample-in-ram midi synth, as it takes up a few megs of precious ram.
6. midi playback can be ignored, as i can use a daughterboard to make up for it.
7. a3d/eax/sensaura/directsound3d and other 3d positioning features are ignored, as they are obviously not feasible on 486 systems.
8. dos support is ignored, as it can be done with another isa soundcard.

as far as i know, most pci sound cards seem to disqualify for point 5, but there are a few exceptions that use integrated fm chip for midi playback.