T5 - SB MCV, SB MCV Pro or both?

[Great Hierophant]

Of the type of Sound Blaster in the SET BLASTER= variable, there are six.
T1 = Sound Blaster 1.0 or 1.5
T2 = Sound Blaster Pro 1.0
T3 = Sound Blaster 2.0
T4 = Sound Blaster Pro 2.0
T6 = Sound Blaster 16 or greater

What about T5?  I know that it was used to designate either of the Microchannel Sound Blasters.  The Sound Blaster MCV was a microchannel version of a 1.5 (without C/MS sockets), the Sound Blaster Pro MCV a microchannel version of the Pro 2.0.  I would suggest that T5 is the SB MCV Pro because each Sound Blaster is given a designation in order of its release.  The 1.0/1.5 was marketed first, then followed by the Pro 1.0, then the 2.0, then the Pro 2.0.  Since the Pro MCV would have been released at the same time or shortly afterward, it must use T5.  Finally, since the vanilla MCV uses the old-style SB 1.5 chips, I would argue that it is supposed to use T1. 

[dvwjr]

What about T5?  I know that it was used to designate either of the Microchannel Sound Blasters.  The Sound Blaster MCV was a microchannel version of a 1.5 (without C/MS sockets), the Sound Blaster Pro MCV a microchannel version of the Pro 2.0.  I would suggest that T5 is the SB MCV Pro because each Sound Blaster is given a designation in order of its release.  The 1.0/1.5 was marketed first, then followed by the Pro 1.0, then the 2.0, then the Pro 2.0.  Since the Pro MCV would have been released at the same time or shortly afterward, it must use T5.  Finally, since the vanilla MCV uses the old-style SB 1.5 chips, I would argue that it is supposed to use T1. 

Here is a VOGONs post with the Sound Blaster environmental variable info I found when checking the DOSBox v0.65 code.


Example: AWE32

     SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H6 T6 P330 E620

A - Base port: (0x210), 0x220, 0x230, 0x240, 0x250, 0x260, 0x280
I - Interrupt: 2, (3), 5, 7, 10.
D - 8bit  DMA channel: 0, 1, 3.
H - 16bit DMA channel: 5, 6, 7.  (Only used by T>=6)
P - MIDI port:  0x300 and 0x330. 
E - Emu8000 port AWE32/64: {0x620, 0xA20, 0xE20},
                           {0x640, 0xA40, 0xE40},
                           {0x660, 0xA60, 0xE60},
                           {0x680, 0xA80, 0xE80}.

T specifies the type of the soundcard:

  1 : Soundblaster 1.0/1.5/MicroChannel   22kHz,  8bit, mono
  2 : Soundblaster Pro 1.0  (dual-OPL2)   44kHz,  8bit, mono or 22KHz, 8bit, stereo
  3 : Soundblaster 2.0/2.0 CD/2.5         44kHz,  8bit, mono
  4 : Soundblaster Pro 2.0  (OPL3)        44kHz,  8bit, stereo
  5 : Soundblaster Pro 2.0 Microchannel   44kHz,  8bit, stereo
  6 : Soundblaster 16/32/AWE32/AWE64      44kHz, 16bit, stereo

Note: The ISA Sound Blaster 1.x and 2.x versions and both MCA versions can used IRQ 3.
Note: Only the Sound Blaster 1.x (ISA and Microchannel) use base adddress 0x210.
Note: For types 2, 4, 5, 6 stereo sound is enabled.
Note: All Sound Blaster 16, 32, AWE32, AWE64 PnP models are of Type 6.
Note: No one Sound Blaster type can use all of the possible Base Port addresses.
Note: Protected mode applications using DOS4GW do not support IRQs > 8, so no use
      of Sound Blaster IRQ 10 unless another DOS Extender used.



dvwjr

edit: change data to reflect below posts and add DOS4GW note

[Great Hierophant]

The post is pretty comprehensive, but non-Pro SBs could use IRQ3.

[dvwjr]

The post is pretty comprehensive, but non-Pro SBs could use IRQ3.

Good catch on the ISA bus 1.x/2x Sound Blasters using IRQ 3 via jumpers!  However, the card pictured above, the IBM Microchannel version of the Sound Blaster Pro 2.0, the Pro/MCV CT-5330 (ADF 5103h) could also use IRQ 3 in addition to IRQs 5 and 7.  The Microchannel MCV CT-5320 (ADF 5084h) strangely enough also used jumpers to configure the IRQs 3, 5 and 7 instead of the ADF configuration file.

I will update the source tables above to reflect the IRQ 3 use by the SB 1.x/2x ISA and the Microchannel Sound Blaster adapters MCV and Pro/MCV.


Thanks again,

dvwjr

[Great Hierophant]

And if were wanted to get truly picky, only SB 1.x (Microchannel included) could start at base addresses 230h or 250h.  Other SBs may have used ports in those ranges, but not as their starting address.

[enigma]

I got a working MCA-System and was looking for a SB Pro with MCA.
It is not so easy to find even a picture of one (well ok there is one in this thread).

I wonder how many of these has been produced. These MCA-SBs seem to be rare as hell.

Does someone has such a card running and found some differences to ISA SB Pros?
I am just curious because they gave the card an own Type number, so one could suspect that some software can read this and behave differently. Maybe additional features?

Is the larger IC near the bus-connector some kind of MCA to ISA converter chip?