ESS Technology Introduces First Integrated Audio Chip with On-Chip Music Synthesis and Native Signal Processing Support

Business Wire, March 22, 1995

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 1995--ESS Technology, Inc. introduced today the ES 1888, the first integrated 16-bit stereo audio chip with on-chip music synthesis and native Signal Processing support. The ES1888 supports PC audio and games in Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro modes, and gains high-quality audio with ESS' ESFM music synthesis. Using the ES 1888, system designers can implement sound card audio on a board design smaller than 1.5" x 2.0", adding audio capability to Multimedia PCs or notebook PCs; and designers gain support of Intel's Native Signal Processing (NSP) Native Audio with the ES1888 and its Native Audio MiniDevice software driver.

The ES1888 provides all required circuitry for adding 16-bit stereo audio and 20-voice music synthesis to multimedia PCs, including 72-operator ESFM music synthesis. The ES1888 provides 16-bit stereo record and playback at sample rates of up to 44.1 KHz with CD-quality sound. The ES1888 has two independent analog mixers: a 7-channel playback mixer and 4-channel record mixer, with three stero inputs for LINE-IN, CD-ROM, TV, plus one mono input for microphone. Three stereo DACs support simultaneously three digital audio data streams: game, music synthesis, and host system playback.

As specified in NSP, the ES1888 supports full duplex operation for simultaneous record and playback using two DMA channels, enabling full-duplex communications in applications including video teleconferencing and echo cancellation. The ES1888 provides on-chip hardware compatibility for Sound Blaster games and DOS-based applications, maintaining compatibility with DOS software. The ES1888 and its associated NSP Native Audio driver enables Windows to schedule multiple applications to use the ES1888 hardware audio resource under NSP.

"The NSP architecture enables the full utilization of ESS Technology's AudioDrive family capabilities," stated Albert Mak, Vice President of Marketing at ESS Technology, "including the ES1888's full-duplex simultaneous record and playback, and 72-operator ESFM music synthesis. The NSP structure provides a balanced architecture between Pentium processor software applications and audio accelerator functions."

"Within the NSP Native Audio architecture, Windows gains access to the resources of the ES1888 by controlling user application software requests," explained Bill Windsor, ESS Strategic Marketing Manager. "Signal processing software requests called MiniFilters are sent through the NSP Native Audio driver to the ES1888 MiniDevice driver, which is a Windows RingO 32bit Virtual Device Driver. This architecture under Windows provides real-time protected-mode control necessary for PC audio."

"ESS Technology is demonstrating its NSP Native Audio driver this week at WinHEC'95," Windsor continued. "ESS' NSP Driver for the full-duplex ES1888 AudioDrive will ship beta-qualified software at the end of April 1995."

The ES1888 has special on-chip support for games functionality and control interfaces, including dual joystick interfaces and hardware volume control. The ES1888's three serial ports enable glueless interfaces to devices including a MIDI synthesizer, DSP processor, and external wavetable music synthesizer. The ES1888 includes a broadside ISA bus interface, advanced power management modes for notebook PCs, and two software address selection modes for motherboard Plug and Play configuration.

The ES1888 device driver and ES1888 Native Audio driver both support ESS' high-quality ESFM music synthesis. "ESFM music synthesis is backward-compatible with FM synthesis, and provides superior sound quality with 72-operator ESFM music synthesis versus 36-operators for FM synthesis," said Albert Mak. "ESFM improves the depth and timbre of instrument sounds and enables chorusing of instruments. PC users with the ES1888 will immediately notice the difference in the depth and richness of computer music."

The ES1888 chip comes with device driver software that supports PC stereo audio under Microsoft Windows, Windows 95, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, and Windows Sound System 2.0, in addition to IBM OS/2 Warp operating systems. NSP Native Audio and the ES1888 MiniDevice Driver running under NSP are compatible with Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.

The ES1888 comes in a 100-pin PQFP and is sampling now. The ES1888 is an extension of ESS' AudioDrive family of audio chips, which includes the ES488, ES1488, ES688, ES1688, and ES968. List pricing for the ES1888 at OEM quantities is $28.00.

ESS Technology, Inc., designs, develops and markets mixed-signal integrated circuits for speech, sound, and multimedia solutions for applications that range from PCs and instrumentation to consumer products. The company was founded in 1984, and holds 14 worldwide patents in time-domain audio compression and reconstruction technology. Since 1989, ESS has shipped over 70 million audio ICs.

AudioDrive and ESPCM are registered trademarks of ESS Technology, Inc. ESFM is a trademark of ESS Technology, Inc. ESFM technology is ESS Technology patent pending. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.