Sound Blaster AWE32 and Sound Blaster 16 PnP Drivers
Sound Blaster AWE32 and Sound Blaster 16 PnP Drivers
----------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer
----------
The Sound Blaster AWE32 and Sound Blaster 16 Drivers and
related files provided in this package are provided 'as
is' without any warranties from Creative Technology Ltd,
expressed or implied with respect to the files. Creative
Technology Ltd. will not be responsible for any kind of
damage, caused directly or indirectly, by using these
drivers and the related files.
Proceed with the installation, only if you agree to the
above terms and conditions.
*WARNING*
---------
THE INSTALLATION PROGRAM REQUIRES THAT YOU HAVE INSTALLED
EITHER SOUND BLASTER AWE32 OR SOUND BLASTER 16 WITH
MMPM/2.
IF YOU ARE USING SOUND BLASTER PRO OR ANY OTHER SOUND
CARD, USE 'Selective Install' TO INSTALL SUPPORT FOR
SOUND BLASTER AWE32 OR SOUND BLASTER 16 AND THEN RUN THIS
INSTALLATION PROGRAM.
ALSO NOTE THAT, TO INSTALL THE DRIVERS CORRECTLY, USE THE
INSTALLATION PROGRAM. SIMPLY COPYING THE DRIVER FILES AND
UPDATING THE CONFIG.SYS IS NOT ENOUGH. THE INSTALLATION
PROGRAM UPDATES YOUR CONFIG.SYS AND MMPM2.INI AND CREATES
OTHER INITIALIZATION FILES AS REQUIRED.
What's New
----------
New DLL+SYS Architecture
------------------------
The Sound Blaster drivers now come in two parts. A ring
3 driver in the form of a DLL(VSD) and the traditional
ring 0 PDD. These drivers implement most of the new
features and interfaces introduced with Warp.
DART
----
These drivers behave properly with DART enabled applications.
DART provides a high performance audio interface for games.
AWE32 SoundFont Support
-----------------------
The Sound Blaster AWE32 drivers now include support for
SoundFont loading. The control panel application, can be
used to load SoundFont files into the banks.
Detection of Various Vibra Chipsets
-----------------------------------
These drivers also include support for the latest series of
Vibra chipsets. Unlike old drivers, the support for different
Vibra chipsets are built-in and there's no need for a driver
specific for Vibra.
Support for Advanced Power Management(APM)
------------------------------------------
These drivers include Advanced Power Management support.
On systems with APM support, the drivers will suspend and
resume correctly.
CSP Codec Support
-----------------
CSP support has been added in. You can use the same CSP
files used in Windows. Copy the CSP files to \MMOS2\DSP
directory. The drivers look for the CSP files and if the
required CSP file is not present, it will use the DSP
files shipped with Warp. The CSP files provide better
recording/playback quality than the ones shipped with
Warp.
Plug n'Play Support
-------------------
These drivers include support for Plug n'Play cards. The drivers
will detect these cards and automatically initialize them.
To enable automatic configuration of Plug n'Play cards, omit all
hardware related parameters in the CONFIG.SYS DEVICE= line. These
are /A, /I, /M, /D and /H for base address, IRQ, MPU port address,
8-bit DMA and 16-bit DMA respectively.
If any of these parameters are specified, the driver will
initialize the hardware with the parameter value specified taking
default values for the parameters omitted.
Plug n'Play BIOS
----------------
On systems with Plug n'Play BIOS, the driver will not initialize
the hardware unless otherwise requested. The BIOS initializes the
sound board and the driver just reads the settings.
But again, if any of the hardware parameters are specified in the
DEVICE= line, the driver will initialize the card with the
specified parameters. This feature comes handy when having to
configure a system with PnP BIOS and with legacy cards that cannot
be configured. Such legacy cards might have resource conflicts
with standard Sound Blaster configuration. In this case you can
ask the driver to override the default configuration with the one
you specified in CONFIG.SYS.
On some systems, the driver's Plug n'Play BIOS interface in the
driver causes it to crash during initialization. This is due to
incompatibility between different PnP BIOS implementations. If
you get the problem, try /P option with the driver. This tells
the driver to ingnore the PnP BIOS forcing it not to access the
PnP BIOS functions even if one is present.
Co-existence Other Plug n'Play Cards
------------------------------------
The SB driver will initialize *ONLY* Sound Blaster PnP cards. If
there are other PnP cards in the system, the driver will not
initialize them. Nor will it tamper with other PnP cards that
have already been initialized by its driver or PnP BIOS. This
ensures a certain level of system integrity.
CONFIG.SYS DEVICE= Line Syntax
------------------------------
The new drivers use a different command line syntax from
the original Sound Blaster drivers installed with Warp
MMPM/2. The new DEVICE= line syntax goes like this,
DEVICE=<path>\SB16D2.SYS /C:n /D:n /H:n /I:x /A:xxx /B:n /M:xxx /N:SBAUD1$ [/Q] [/EXT]
/C: - Card Number, this will be set to 1 in most cases
/D: - 8-bit DMA channel,
Valid values - 0, 1 & 3
(Sound Blaster cards that use Vibra chipset do not have 0).
Default value - 1.
/H: - 16-bit DMA channel,
Valid values - 5, 6 & 7
(Sound Blaster cards that use Vibra chipset do not have 6).
Default value - 5.
/I: - IRQ number,
Valid values - 5, 7, 9, 10 & 11.
Default IRQ - 5.
/A: - Base addresss,
Valid values - 220, 240, 260, 280
Default value - 220.
/B: - Buffer size in KB,
Valid values - 1-24. While any value in this range will work
fine, to get the best results don't use this option and let
the driver use the default buffer size.
Default value - 8KB.
/M: - MPU port address
Valid values - 300 & 330
Default value - 330.
/N: - driver name, set this to SBAUD1$
/Q - quiet mode flag, OPTIONAL
Setting this option disables initialization messages.
If not specified the initialization messages are displayed
during boot-up.
/EXT - use MPU port instead of internal synth for MIDI, OPTIONAL
By default the drivers are configured to use the internal
synthesizer. But if you have a daughterboard attached to
your Sound Blaster card and you want MIDI playback to
use the synthesizer in the daughterboard, specify
this flag.
/P - Ignore PnP BIOS if it is present. If PnP BIOS is present,
the driver usually queries the BIOS for certain PnP port
addresses. Specifying this option causes the driver not
to access the BIOS and determine these port addresses
itself.
THE NEW DRIVER DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THE OLD POSITIONAL SYNTAX.
The installation program will make the necessary chages
to your CONFIG.SYS. But make sure that you have a valid
existing Sound Blaster AWE32 or Sound Blaster 16 support
installed in MMPM/2(See *WARNING* above).
A sample CONFIG.SYS statement looks like this:-
DEVICE=C:\SBAWE32\SBAWED2.SYS /C:1 /D:1 /H:5 /I:5 /A:220 /B:8 /M:330 /N:SBAUD1$
Using 8-bit DMA Channel for 16-bit DMA
--------------------------------------
Some systems come without 16-bit DMA support. In such
systems, the drivers can be configured to use 8-bit DMA
channels for 16-bit DMA. Just set the 16-bit DMA Channel
parameter(/H:) to use one of the 8-bit DMA channels(0, 1
or 3).
Reporting Driver Problems & Bugs
--------------------------------
If you find any problem or bugs in the driver, please do
report them. If you have internet access, please post a
message on the comp.os.os2.multimedia newsgroup. This is
the best way to ensure that the bug report reaches the
driver developer.
If you do not have internet access, please report the bug
to Creative Technology/Creative Labs technical support
and they will inform the developer.
[HM01231996]
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