Re: question about sblive and linux

Jacob Hawley (jhawley@creaf.com)
Tue, 12 Jan 1999 20:07:25 -0800


Not an easy question to answer.

Short Answer:
Under DOS/Windows it is about 98% compatible.

Long Answer:
The PCI bus does not support ISA IRQ/DMA requests. In addition, the I/O ranges
that are typically used for Sound Blaster (220h - Basic Audio, 680h - WaveTable,
200h for Joystick) are not supported in the PCI config space.

So, what we end up having to do is a lot of work to emulate and trap these I/O
ranges, and to respond to the IRQ/DMA requests all the while maintaining the
proper timing characteristics of the PCI bus. It is a very delicate balance
between the driver and the chip in-order for this to function properly. However
this is a requirement of our because we are makers we have to maintain "Legacy"
compatibility. To games, and in fact to most of the test programs available
this works perfectly. We have found a couple of instances where the support
does not work properly, these are primarily with VIA PCI chipsets.

Needless to say Sound Blaster wouldn't work on non-Intel platforms anyway,
because the I/O ranges would not be applicable in an Alpha, CISC or RICS
processors. This is a fundamental problem that needs to be looked at in any
driver the Creative develops, it is very difficult for Creative to walk away
from "Sound Blaster Compatibility".

Jake

-----Original Message-----
From: Jakub Gwozdz <gwozdziu@uci.agh.edu.pl>
To: Jacob Hawley <jhawley@creaf.com>
Cc: Linux (Kernel Reflector) <linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu>
Date: Tuesday, January 12, 1999 2:33 PM
Subject: Re: question about sblive and linux

>On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Jacob Hawley wrote:
>
>> Currently the answer is no. We are actively developing a driver, but it will
>> take some months before it is ready. My suggestion to you is that if you
want a
>> sound card that works I would suggest one of the ISA or Sound Blaster PCI
>> (formerly Ensoniq) products. These already have drivers available in the
>> kernel.
>
>So... SBLive isn't compatible with SB16 (and earlier), is it?
>
>Jakub Gwozdz
>
>
>-
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