Re: Multiple Questions Regarding Music Playback from IDE Optical Drives

Posted on 2017-11-23, 16:12

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Two (this one could be subjective), is an optical drive's DAC better than a soundcard's? I think it's safe to assume that the DAC on a CDROM drive was mainly a 'checkbox feature'... They put it on there because it had to be there. They probably just picked some cheap generic DAC, and probably also …

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Re: Multiple Questions Regarding Music Playback from IDE Optical Drives

Posted on 2017-11-23, 11:38

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

[*] What is the benefit of using the 4-pin analog wire over the digital means of transmitting audio? This is mainly a legacy interface. When the first CD-ROM drives became available, most sound cards didn't have CD-quality DACs yet, let alone SPDIF support (we are talking SB Pro-era, older cards …

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Re: "Expensive" 486 system?? (Gameable)

Posted on 2017-11-23, 11:25

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

So an original Pentium-based system was more expensive, but DX4 had better gaming performance because of a higher frequency and probably was the top choice for home users. In my experience, the 486DX4 has always been a niche product. Reason is that it was late to the party (introduced after the …

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Re: "Expensive" 486 system?? (Gameable)

Posted on 2017-11-23, 11:00

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I would think the server-oriented 486 machines would be the most expensive. Perhaps those IBM PS/2 towers with MCA bus, SCSI drives etc?

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Re: Cirrus Logic-GD5424 VLB vs Tseng 4000AX

Posted on 2017-11-22, 12:38

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

badmojo wrote: CL cards on the other hand seem to be consistently very good and very compatible - some have better image quality than others because of the implementation. Yea, getting brand name cards may help. I have a Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB, which seems to have reasonable image quality.

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Re: Cirrus Logic-GD5424 VLB vs Tseng 4000AX

Posted on 2017-11-21, 18:54

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

fsmith2003 wrote: And am I correct in saying there was no version of the Tseng 4000AX in VLB? I think there are VLB versions of the ET4000AX, but they might be rare compared to the later revisions, such as the ET4000/W32,i,p.

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Re: Cirrus Logic-GD5424 VLB vs Tseng 4000AX

Posted on 2017-11-21, 18:13

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The GD542x series are very good early VLB cards. They will have an edge over the 4000AX. I believe there was a comparison on this forum somewhere, but I can't find it now.

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Re: Umbherc.sys requirements ?

Posted on 2017-11-21, 11:35

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The card definitely has to be in half-mode, I don't know what the default is. 'Half' is the default mode. I have a real Hercules card (GB102), and it has no jumpers or dipswitches of any kind. It has to boot up in half mode in order to work alongside a CGA card, just like MDA does. You should …

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Re: OPL2LPT

Posted on 2017-11-20, 13:38

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Since the Digispeech Port*Able Sound Plus is based on an ESS chip, which, if I'm not mistaken, emulates a soundblaster in hardware, couldn't you just treat it like a soundblaster but instead of using the standard port 220, you use the port for LPT instead? I'm sure its not that simple, I just don't …

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Re: Keen 4-5-6 choppy scrolling on EGA card

Posted on 2017-11-19, 23:08

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

English isn't my first language and I'm probably not old or obsessed enough to know what "A2286/8" or "Q700" mean. An A2000 is a Commodore Amiga 2000. An A2286/8 is a bridgeboard for the Amiga 2000, which contains a 286 CPU at 8 MHz for PC compatibility. The Q700 is an Apple MacIntosh Quadra 700 I …

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Re: Converting an old 286 into a 486

Posted on 2017-11-19, 18:14

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm thinking I'll need to replace every card inside too since I think these are ISA slots and good 486 boards probably only take PCI, right? Early 486 boards were ISA-only. Then there were the VLB boards, where you can use both ISA and VLB cards. Late 486 boards would have ISA and PCI (stay away …

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Re: 68K remakes demand LOT's of Horsepower, but what causes this?

Posted on 2017-11-15, 21:12

by

by Scali

in Windows

in Windows

You just should keep in mind that they worked 100% OK on a 7Mhz 68K! and now you need 1.000 times faster machine to get them work stutterfree again. :( The magic of the Amiga was in the chipset, not the CPU. Most effects used in such demos are done with the copper and blitter. A PC doesn't have …

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Re: ASUS-P2b - 133 MHZ FSB?

Posted on 2017-11-15, 20:57

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have the P2B-LS variation, and I could never get it working properly beyond 112 MHz.

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Re: TMU & Pipeline Clarification

Posted on 2017-11-07, 09:36

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

This should enable eight full texture blends at 60 FPS. Is this reasoning valid? Well, not entirely. The GeForce256 can still perform two textures in a single pass, if I'm not mistaken. It just has less TMUs. So the second texture read can still be done in just 4 extra bytes. But you will get …

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Re: TMU & Pipeline Clarification

Posted on 2017-11-06, 22:03

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I was under the impression that the Geforce's Quadpipe allowed it to work with multiple adjacent pixels in parallel Yes, quadpipe literally means 4 (pixel) pipelines. Also, why only two textures per pass on a Geforce when it is supposedly a four pipeline chip, like NVIDIA's trademark implies? You …

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Re: TMU & Pipeline Clarification

Posted on 2017-11-06, 19:17

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Yes, but does this then simply waste the resources whether one has one or two TMUs per pipeline? Yes, but if you only want one texture, then what else were you going to do with that TMU? :) Anyway, in the real world it is far more complicated... Different generations of hardware use TMUs …

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Re: TMU & Pipeline Clarification

Posted on 2017-11-06, 18:28

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Multitexturing using three textures when you have something capable of four. That's simple: NOP :) You can use however many textures you like, up to the maximum the hardware allows (if anything, that's required for backward compatibility with single-textured software). So if you have more TMUs than …

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Re: OPL2LPT

Posted on 2017-11-06, 15:59

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

But DSS means "Digisound only", OPL2LPT means FM-Music and no Digisound, two complete different things, or am I wrong here? Yes... however... There is a trick to make OPL2 play digital samples as well. Some games use this (I believe Supaplex is one). In theory you could create a TSR that simulates …

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Re: OPL2LPT

Posted on 2017-11-05, 11:14

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Simply redirecting Port will not work ? Status Lines are used for WR and other Stuff ? So the TSR does more then just redirection of port access. The OPL2 chip has two ports: 388h is the index port 389h is the data port Any register write is done by first writing the index of the register to 388h, …

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Re: Pentium 60/66 VLB board identification help needed...

Posted on 2017-11-04, 20:52

by

by Scali

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

kanecvr wrote: Interesting. That means most traces go trough one of the middle layers of the board. But some go to the UMC chip - wonder what it does.. Judging from the datasheet, the UMC chip mostly supplies legacy PC/AT support, like the DMA controller, PIC, timer and CMOS chip.

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