I had never heard of this card. It does look very neat. 😀

interesting, first time I see this as well

Very retro looking, cool find ~

I'd use it

So who first came up with the idea to put an OPL2 on an ISA card? Wikipedia says the YM3812 was created by Yamaha in 1985.

It looks to be in pristine condition, i.e. I can't see/spot any wear or tear on the ISA connector at all. Maybe worth adding some info and a photo to Wikipedia?

It would be interesting to know what the use-case was for this particular card. Is the obscured letter that follows "University of Delaware" an "O"? If so, the "OIT" acronym presumably represents "Office of Information Technology," which makes me wonder if the card may have been a component of some campus-wide video/teletext system or similar.

I always "like" the cynisysm of early hardware and software manufacturers, everybody stole from everybody and everybody went to court. Rubbing letters off the chips is one thing. But going to court all the time.... i am looking at you apple.

So Even Adlib was stolen from someone else 😁

suntac wrote on 2020-10-21, 18:37:

it seems hundreds of them may have been produced

So it was sold comercially?
It's hard to believe - if there were hundreds of them in use, why it got so forgotten?

Grzyb wrote on 2020-10-22, 07:08:

So it was sold comercially?
It's hard to believe - if there were hundreds of them in use, why it got so forgotten?

I was thinking maybe it was part of a course (like electrical engineering or such) and each student assembled their own and was assessed on the final product... but that would probably have to include some sort of extra design-solving problem (like coding/programming a ROM or such) rather than just sticking a bunch of components in a predesigned board.

jmarsh wrote on 2020-10-22, 07:49:

Grzyb wrote on 2020-10-22, 07:08:

So it was sold comercially?
It's hard to believe - if there were hundreds of them in use, why it got so forgotten?

I was thinking maybe it was part of a course (like electrical engineering or such) and each student assembled their own and was assessed on the final product... but that would probably have to include some sort of extra design-solving problem (like coding/programming a ROM or such) rather than just sticking a bunch of components in a predesigned board.

Yes, that's exactly what I think. It wasn't intended to be a commercial product. On the PCB there were remnants of solder rosin which I cleaned with isopropylalcohol before taking these pictures.

So where did you find your information? And could "JBI" on the back be the initials of the designer? 😁

VileR wrote on 2020-10-22, 09:51:

So where did you find your information? And could "JBI" on the back be the initials of the designer? 😁

It's just a qualified guess. JBI was the name of the PCB manufacturer, or its acronym. The 94V0 supports that.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2020-10-22, 05:00:

I always "like" the cynisysm of early hardware and software manufacturers, everybody stole from everybody and everybody went to court. Rubbing letters off the chips is one thing. But going to court all the time.... i am looking at you apple.

So Even Adlib was stolen from someone else 😁

I don't believe the AdLib design was stolen. The idea is the same, but the design is different. We see no cost-cutting on this card. It is also very uncommon to see an 8-bit I/O address selector DIP switch in a commercial ISA card.

Cloudschatze wrote:

If so, the "OIT" acronym presumably represents "Office of Information Technology," which makes me wonder if the card may have been a component of some campus-wide video/teletext system or similar.

How appropriate that both the original YM3526 and YM3812 are described as being "designed for Captain systems and videotext systems" in their original datasheets (CAPTAIN=Character and Pattern Telephone Access Information Network).

suntac wrote:

Although the card's OPL2 chip was originally mapped to a different I/O port range

Which one?

NewRisingSun wrote on 2020-10-22, 17:20:

suntac wrote:

Although the card's OPL2 chip was originally mapped to a different I/O port range

Which one?

11 1001 11xx 😀

Did the founder of Adlib have any connection to the University of Delaware?

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-10-24, 23:47:

Did the founder of Adlib have any connection to the University of Delaware?

The founder was a Vice Dean in Quebec

Lyrtech was highly integrated into Adlib and provided electronic audio processing / design for military and government customers.

If I had to guess Lytech may have had a hand with UODs system which likely spilled forward to Adlib since it’s easier to make software you already have.

Fascinating stuff, and a beautiful looking card!