DundyTheCroc wrote on 2021-03-13, 17:39:
Can I add Wyse VXO V90LE, it runs nice with Win98SE, no problem with drivers.
Yep, it’s decent with Win98SE. That being said, the audio is AC97 only, so no native DOS support if you expect to use it to play Wing Commander Privateer (won’t work in a DOS box in the Windows UI).
The general strategy of looking for a small machine with DOS audio support looks like this...which has nothing to do with modern per-se.
A) Look for something that is made back in 2000/2001 that has explicit Soundblaster support in hardware (MediaGX 1 or 2, Socket7 stuff, any oldschool SFF with SB clone hardware integrated, or anything with a SiS730) - that is often an early thin client like a Compaq Evo T20/30, an Igel WinTerminal J/J+/W, a Neoware CA2 or a Netier XL1000/2000. It can also be an old SFF like a Dell GX1.
B) Look for something that has accidental/holdover support where DOS compatibility was not a selling point (VT8231/686C southbridge SB based stuff) - that’ll be the Wyse WTx450E series of thin clients based on the first Via Epia boards (which has a VT8231), or the t5710.
C) something that has a southbridge that allows ISA Interrupts and DMA to work on PCI slots (i.e the SiS963 on the HP t5720 with the expansion bay or the VT8235 on the 1.2Ghz variant of the Hp t5710).
Intel -
The Intel 430/440 chipsets are known to play well with ISA interrupts and DMA calls for oldschool soundblaster support with PCI sound cards.
Intel ICH? (810 and beyond)...Not so much. DDMA support was dropped, you don’t typically get SBLink on small machines, and TDMA/DSDMA is not all that reliable. Support was also dropped after ICH5, so anything Atom (ICH7m and above) will not work.
VIA? Anything from the 586c southbridge to the VT8235 will work.
SiS? no ISA support after the SiS 964.
Ali/Uli? No freaking idea - probably some Trident 4Dwave audio block on the Uli southbridge, but passing ISA DMA or interrupts? Likely no - but you won’t find too many mainstream thin clients or mini boxes on Ali/Uli chipsets anyways.
NVidia? Not really - you need an Aureal Vortex2 and even then it’s a bit of a wash. With the exception of Shuttle box PCs, you won’t find nForce with PCI (note: not PCI Express) on cheap or popular machines.
AMD chipsets? Forget it. No ISA support unless it’s specialized industrial PCs running off their embedded APUs.
It can also be something that is small form factor and can support ISA natively (this can be native to the chipset or on an included PCI to ISA bridge chip that can pass DMA/interrupts...which is how some PC104 Atom and Pentium-M boxes implement ISA). Sometimes this is a thin client, sometimes it’s an SFF or sometimes, it could be a POS (Nixdorf Beetle D2) or an industrial PC. TechTangents on YouTube did a video on some Unisys POS box that is small and can fit a Pentium 233MMX with PCI slots and an ISA slot within.
Very few truly modern x86 hardware (i.e. equipped with Intel HDA sound, SATA or PCIe or an Intel Atom) will do DOS sound natively. win98 with WDM drivers? Perhaps. But drop it to DOS and it’ll be PC speakers only. The DM&P Vortex86 series might have native ISA with DMA/Interrupt support, but that’s a rarity.