Samsung aims audio IC at multimedia systems

Electronic News, Nov 7, 1994

SAN JOSE, CALIF.--Samsung Electronics has unveiled an integrated, single-chip audio system core for mainstream multimedia systems. The KS0161 OmniWave sound device--which the company says will reduce the chip-count of a complete CD-quality, wavetable-based sound system from 20 to 10 chips--is targeted at makers of multimedia audio products, music synthesizers and video games.

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George Brecht, Samsung's chipset marketing manager, said that so far PC OEMs have steered clear of designing their own sound subsystems because of the complexity of the task and prohibitive costs, choosing instead to leave the chore up to board manufacturers. "We've made the job of coming out with an audio system much easier," Mr. Brecht maintained. According to In-Stat, the market for multimedia PC sound systems is expected to grow from 12 million units in 1994 to 41 million units by 1997.

Designed in conjunction with Sequoia Development Group, the OmniWave chip offers an on-board 16-bit CPU and wave-table sound synthesis at a 44.1KHz sample rate. Samsung, saying the chip will cut the bill of materials in a sound system from $70 to less than $50, is squaring off against designs from current market contenders such as the SoundBlaster AWE-32, Ensoniq SoundScape and various DSP-based products.

Samsung estimates a full-featured PC sound system employing the OmniWave chip could fit on a half-size add-in card that will have a manufacturing cost 25- to 40 percent less than today's sound products with comparable features.

Ostensibly backing the claims are a raft of features that the company says bring higher-quality sound to a design that costs about as much as a lower-end FM synthesis subsystem. OmniWave provides a 32-voice wavetable synthesizer, and to add depth lost through looping, there is a separate 4-pole resonant filter for each of the 32 voices. Also, a pair of Roland MPU-401 interfaces allows the user to transmit MIDI data to an on-board synthesizer and to an external MIDI device at the same time. The device also supports FM synthesis and Microsoft Business Audio.

Besides an on-board CPU and wavetable synthesizer, the chip contains jumperless host PC DMA and IRQ select interfaces, a host PC I/O interface, a synthesizer sample memory interface, an AD-1848-compatible CODEC interface, a MIDI UART, and an IBM joystick interface. External components required include a ROM, two SRAMs or DRAMs, an AD-1848-compatible CODEC, a 16-bit D/A converter, two TTL ICs, a dual OP-amp and some discrete analog components.

Scheduled to begin sampling in 1Q95, the OmniWave chip is priced at $17.25 in 10,000-unit quantities.