VOGONS


First post, by Harlock

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Hi there, as I'm on the noob"ish" side of this, how can I recognize if a SoundBlaster 16 has an OPL chip or not?
I'm looking at a ct2940, I got this picture from an old topic (Whats the best version of the Sound Blaster 16?), as I understand then, a ct2940 WITH those chips in the circle has an OLP/YMF289 chip, and that's ok.
If not, then it's a common CQM chip, is that right?

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Reply 1 of 3, by keropi

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yep, you are correct:
if these 2 chips are present then the card has a real OPL3
if the spots are unpopulated then the card has CQM

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Reply 3 of 3, by bloodem

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SB16 cards can also have the CT1747 bus interface, which has an integrated OPL3 chip (and it usually - but not always - has "OPL" silkscreened on it).
On those particular cards, you WON'T see a separate OPL3 chip, even though they do have an authentic OPL3 sound.

Older SB16 cards have the original YMF262 OPL3 chip (the YMF289 is the newer and lower-power version of the YMF262).

For more information see this spreadsheet.

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