Sound Boards: InterWave by AMD


 * INTERWAVE by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

Last update: 12/26/97

Phone:

Fax:

BBS:

e-mail:
 * rjm@io.org for Robert Manley

web:
 * http://www.amd.com (AMD), http://www.io.org/~rjm (Robert Manley)

Type:
 * Wavetable

OS/2 Drivers:
 * Available (shareware, US$30)

Drivers from:
 * http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/sander, http://www.io.org/~rjm

Boards using this chipset include:
 * Gravis UltraSound (GUS) PnP & PnP Pro; Core Dynamics DynaSonix series; Reveal WavExtreme Pro (SC800); STB SoundRage; probably others

Comments:
 * This chipset was apparently designed jointly by AMD and Advanced Gravis, and represents the next stage in development of the Gravis technology. Boards using this chipset typically have a wavetable ROM and also accept RAM for expanded or higher-quality wavetable sample sets. To the best of my knowledge, neither AMD nor any of the companies producing boards based on this chipset provide OS/2 driver support, but the shareware Manley GUS drivers do (version 1.20 or higher, in a public beta test as of 11/9/96). These drivers do not currently use the boards' on-board ROMs, so you'll need RAM (1-2MB should be adequate for most MIDI files) to get MIDI playback, as well as disk-based sample sets which should come with the board or which are available from Gravis. VTD does work with these drivers on a GUS PnP board. Aside from the GUSes and one report of partial success with a Reveal SC800, I don't know which board(s) the Manley drivers support. These drivers support OS/2, DOS, and Windows sound, though they limit the user to three MIDI device startups until registered. Also, Windows sound works only with the 1.0-level drivers from Gravis; the 2.0-level Windows drivers that Gravis has recently released reportedly do not work under Win-OS/2. Sander van Leeuwen, the current maintainer of the Manley drivers, is working on full Win-OS/2 drivers for all GUS and InterWave-based boards, but I have no information on when this may be finished. SoundBlaster emulation for DOS programs is not yet completed. The InterWave chipset is unusual in that it supports true full duplex operation. As mentioned in the Technology section, though, this doesn't do much good for VTD operation. It does reportedly work with Internet telephony applications. The Interwave chipset appears to be on the way out; of the four manufacturers listed above, only one (Core Dynamics) appears still to be making Interwave-based sound cards.