Innovation SSI-2001: the story of one of the rarest sound cards for the IBM PC (and its replicas)
Last time we talked about the DIY project Snark Barker , the author of which created a replica of the Sound Blaster 1.0 vintage sound card. That material scored 70 pluses and is already preparing to pass a mark of 50 thousand views. Today we continue the topic and discuss another device that is back from the past. This is Innovation SSI-2001 and its replica.
Photo by Christian Taube / CC BY-SA / SID MOS 6581 Chip synthesizer
The sound card SSI-2001 was released in 1989 by Innovation Computer Corporation - a company that was one of the first to receive a DOS license from Microsoft and developed computers for the MIR space station . The Innovation SSI-2001 card was designed for IBM PC computers. Its distinguishing feature was the three-voice SID chip synthesizer ( MOS 6581 ), which was installed in the Commodore 64. SSI-2001 was to become a competitor to the AdLib sound card, which was popular in the market at that time.
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Developers planned to win the market with the help of an aggressive pricing policy: at the start of sales, SSI-2001 cost $ 130. Buying AdLib at that time cost $ 175–195. However, the card failed. She didn’t gain popularity among developers - less than 20 games were written for her. Plus, according to some sources , distributors did not work with SSI-2001, and it could only be purchased directly from the manufacturer.
Negatively affected the popularity of the device and in the same year the Sound Blaster card (we talked about it in the previous article ), which was promoted at Microsoft. As a result, SSI-2001 could not stand the competition and was almost forgotten.
Several years ago, Innovation SSI-2001 again manifested itself - in 2015, the audio enthusiast recreated a replica of this sound card. For the first time the idea was voiced in a thread on the Vogons forum eight years ago. Its participants found the owner of the original device, which took photos of the board and components.
With Vogons, the discussion spread to one of the Russian-language sites where engineer Maxim Kryukov became interested in the project - he maintains his own video blog about repairing and restoring audio equipment. Kryukov began reverse engineering and began to reproduce Innovation SSI-2001.
According to the engineer, it was difficult to reproduce the map - some of the tracks on the board photo were not visible. By that time, the owner of the original card had stopped communicating, and it turned out to be impossible to ask for pictures from new angles. They had to "think out" on their own. The first test sample of the assembled board looked like this .
During testing, there was a flaw - the sound was reproduced with distortion. The reason was an error in the connection of the microcircuits. Later, the developer corrected the problem and created a second version of the printed circuit board with modified wiring.
The author made several modifications to the SSI-2001 device. For example, RCA connectors have been replaced with a mini-jack 3.5 mm. Also appeared voltage regulator for the chip-synthesizer. It allows, if necessary, to replace the standard 6581 chip with a newer version - 8580. Additionally, drivers were updated, and the list of supported SSI-2001 games was expanded to one hundred.
It is believed that SSI-2001 sounds worse than its main competitor - AdLib. Differences in the sound associated with the features of the synthesizer chips. SID produces only "angular" forms of sound waves, AdLib is able to generate a sinusoid.
But despite this, SID is still ranked among the best synthesizers on the market. Large collections of music for him have survived. And the SSI-2001 replica gives you the opportunity to listen to it on the original equipment. Examples of such records can be found in the video that the author replica uploaded to YouTube .
But the “revived” map still has certain disadvantages. For example, it is known that when playing the soundtrack for the Monty on the Run game using the SwinSID chip, its sound differs from the original sound in the Commodore 64. The likely cause of this behavior is problems with synchronization in the SSI-2001 copy.
A few years ago, DIY enthusiasts recreated another rather rare audio device - the FTL Sound Adapter. It came out in the late 1980s, complete with the game Dungeon Master . The Sound Adapter was an external DAC that connected to the computer through a parallel port. Diagram of the device and the necessary components can be found by reference .
Another similar project is dedicated to Covox Sound Master. The device is an internal sound card, which was released in 1989. Sound Master uses the AY-3-8930 chip - a slightly modified version of the AY-3-8910 chip . It was used in computers ZX Spectrum and their clones. The chip had three programmable square-wave generators and one pseudo-noise generator.
While the replica is in development - you can follow the progress in the thread on the Vogons forum.
Photo phreakindee / PD / AdLib Sound Card with OPL2 chip
Another author of the recreated SSI-2001 since 2018 has been developing the FMonster device. The engineer plans to combine the maximum number of synthesizer chips on a single board: SID, OPL2, OPL3, SAA 1099. Such initiatives show that vintage audio electronics are still popular. In the future, more retro iron recovery projects will appear.
What we write about in the “World Hi-FI” and Telegram-channel:
The enthusiast recreated the sound card Sound Blaster 1.0 - what is remarkable about the project
Trautonium: the German wave in the history of synthesizers
Zoo professions related to the audio industry
What is 8D audio - discussing the new trend
Eight audio technologies that will fall into the hall of fame TECnology in 2019
What you need to know before you start a career in the audio industry
DSD conversion: fake or good?
The first techno album, which was created on the Sega Mega Drive, will be sold on cartridges
Vinyl instead of a postage stamp: an unusual rarity
Photo by Christian Taube / CC BY-SA / SID MOS 6581 Chip synthesizer
History of Innovation SSI-2001
The sound card SSI-2001 was released in 1989 by Innovation Computer Corporation - a company that was one of the first to receive a DOS license from Microsoft and developed computers for the MIR space station . The Innovation SSI-2001 card was designed for IBM PC computers. Its distinguishing feature was the three-voice SID chip synthesizer ( MOS 6581 ), which was installed in the Commodore 64. SSI-2001 was to become a competitor to the AdLib sound card, which was popular in the market at that time.
')
Developers planned to win the market with the help of an aggressive pricing policy: at the start of sales, SSI-2001 cost $ 130. Buying AdLib at that time cost $ 175–195. However, the card failed. She didn’t gain popularity among developers - less than 20 games were written for her. Plus, according to some sources , distributors did not work with SSI-2001, and it could only be purchased directly from the manufacturer.
Negatively affected the popularity of the device and in the same year the Sound Blaster card (we talked about it in the previous article ), which was promoted at Microsoft. As a result, SSI-2001 could not stand the competition and was almost forgotten.
Card replica
Several years ago, Innovation SSI-2001 again manifested itself - in 2015, the audio enthusiast recreated a replica of this sound card. For the first time the idea was voiced in a thread on the Vogons forum eight years ago. Its participants found the owner of the original device, which took photos of the board and components.
With Vogons, the discussion spread to one of the Russian-language sites where engineer Maxim Kryukov became interested in the project - he maintains his own video blog about repairing and restoring audio equipment. Kryukov began reverse engineering and began to reproduce Innovation SSI-2001.
According to the engineer, it was difficult to reproduce the map - some of the tracks on the board photo were not visible. By that time, the owner of the original card had stopped communicating, and it turned out to be impossible to ask for pictures from new angles. They had to "think out" on their own. The first test sample of the assembled board looked like this .
During testing, there was a flaw - the sound was reproduced with distortion. The reason was an error in the connection of the microcircuits. Later, the developer corrected the problem and created a second version of the printed circuit board with modified wiring.
The heart of the card is the SID chip. It can be either a standard SID or a modern copy of SwinSID . SSI-2001 is built on the following electronic components: a synchronous counter 74HC192, three chips with D-flip-flops 74LS74, two decoders 74LS138, NAND-gate 74LS00 and timer NE558.
The author made several modifications to the SSI-2001 device. For example, RCA connectors have been replaced with a mini-jack 3.5 mm. Also appeared voltage regulator for the chip-synthesizer. It allows, if necessary, to replace the standard 6581 chip with a newer version - 8580. Additionally, drivers were updated, and the list of supported SSI-2001 games was expanded to one hundred.
What do they think about the map?
It is believed that SSI-2001 sounds worse than its main competitor - AdLib. Differences in the sound associated with the features of the synthesizer chips. SID produces only "angular" forms of sound waves, AdLib is able to generate a sinusoid.
But despite this, SID is still ranked among the best synthesizers on the market. Large collections of music for him have survived. And the SSI-2001 replica gives you the opportunity to listen to it on the original equipment. Examples of such records can be found in the video that the author replica uploaded to YouTube .
But the “revived” map still has certain disadvantages. For example, it is known that when playing the soundtrack for the Monty on the Run game using the SwinSID chip, its sound differs from the original sound in the Commodore 64. The likely cause of this behavior is problems with synchronization in the SSI-2001 copy.
Related projects
A few years ago, DIY enthusiasts recreated another rather rare audio device - the FTL Sound Adapter. It came out in the late 1980s, complete with the game Dungeon Master . The Sound Adapter was an external DAC that connected to the computer through a parallel port. Diagram of the device and the necessary components can be found by reference .
Another similar project is dedicated to Covox Sound Master. The device is an internal sound card, which was released in 1989. Sound Master uses the AY-3-8930 chip - a slightly modified version of the AY-3-8910 chip . It was used in computers ZX Spectrum and their clones. The chip had three programmable square-wave generators and one pseudo-noise generator.
While the replica is in development - you can follow the progress in the thread on the Vogons forum.
Photo phreakindee / PD / AdLib Sound Card with OPL2 chip
Another author of the recreated SSI-2001 since 2018 has been developing the FMonster device. The engineer plans to combine the maximum number of synthesizer chips on a single board: SID, OPL2, OPL3, SAA 1099. Such initiatives show that vintage audio electronics are still popular. In the future, more retro iron recovery projects will appear.
What we write about in the “World Hi-FI” and Telegram-channel:
The enthusiast recreated the sound card Sound Blaster 1.0 - what is remarkable about the project Trautonium: the German wave in the history of synthesizers Zoo professions related to the audio industry What is 8D audio - discussing the new trend Eight audio technologies that will fall into the hall of fame TECnology in 2019 What you need to know before you start a career in the audio industry DSD conversion: fake or good? The first techno album, which was created on the Sega Mega Drive, will be sold on cartridges Vinyl instead of a postage stamp: an unusual raritySource: https://habr.com/ru/post/449876/
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