Creative Sound Blaster Timeline - Overclock.net

chanster · 02-19-08

1987
Sound Blaster 1.0

Quote:

The first board bearing the Sound Blaster name appeared in November 1987. In addition to Game Blaster features, it had an 11-voice FM synthesizer using the Yamaha YM3812 chip, also known as OPL2. It provided perfect compatibility with the then market leader AdLib sound card, which had gained support in PC games in the preceding years. Creative used the "DSP" acronym to designate the digital audio part of the Sound Blaster. This actually
stood for Digital SOUND Processor, rather than for the more common digital signal processor meaning, and was really a simple microcontroller from the Intel MCS-51 family (supplied by Intel and Matra MHS, among others). It could play back monaural sampled sound at up to 23 kHz sampling frequency (AM radio quality) and record at up to 12 kHz (slightly better than telephone quality). The sole DSP-like feature of the circuit was ADPCM decompression.

Models of Sound Blaster
1.Sound Blaster 1.0
2.Sound Blaster 2.0(Supports 44 kHz playback)
3.Sound Blaster MCV

1991=16 bits was introduced
Sound Blaster 16

Quote:

introduced 16-bit digital audio sampling to the Sound Blaster line. Like the older Sound Blasters, they also natively supported FM synthesis through a Yamaha OPL-3 chip. The cards also featured a connector for add-on daughterboards with "wavetable synthesis" (actually, sample-based synthesis) capabilities complying to the General MIDI standard.

1994
Sound Blaster AWE32

Quote:

was a full-length ISA card, measuring 14 inches (356 mm) in length. The AWE32 included two distinct audio sections; one being the Creative digital audio section with their audio codec and optional CSP/ASP chip socket, and the second being the E-mu MIDI synthesizer section. The synthesizer section consisted of the EMU8000 sampler and effects processor, an EMU8011 1 MiB sample ROM, and 512 kiB of sample RAM (expandable to 28 MiB).

Models
1.Sound Blaster AWE32
2.Sound Blaster 32
3.Sound Blaster AWE64(Improved SNR and a SPDIF output)

1998=Multi-channel
Ensoniq AudioPCI-based cards

Quote:

Creative acquired Ensoniq Corporation, manufacturer of the AudioPCI, a card popular with OEMs at the time. AudioPCI offered a full-featured solution, being a PCI sound card with wavetable MIDI, and offering 4-speaker DirectSound3D surround sound, A3D emulation, and full DOS legacy support. Creative's acquisition filled a market segment where Live! was too expensive, and it gave them excellent DOS support, a feature that was proving difficult for companies to get working with PCI cards (typically early PCI audio cards are limited to DOS boxes within Windows 9x.)

Q3 1998=Major Breakthrough
Sound Blaster Live!
It introduced a EMU10K1 processor...The chip supported a 2.44 million transistor DSP capable of 1000 MIPS for processing Audio....and supported EAX(environmental audio extensions)...The Live! was absolutely stunning compared to the older generation....It also supported multi channel surround sound with SPDIF out and could decode Dolby 5.1.....

Models
1.Sound Blaster Live! MP3+ 5.1
2.Live! Platinum 5.1
3.Sound Blaster Live! Digital(Dell)
4.Live! Digital entertainment 5.1(SE)
5.Live! Platinum
6.Sound Blaster Live!
7.Sound Blaster Live! Value
8.Later Live! 24bit(2003)

2001
Audigy
It had a improved version of the EMU10K1 processor and it was called EMU10K2....The main advantage was Advanced HD also called EAX 3...which could process 4 environments at one time.....The 2001 Audigy was advertised as a 24bit sound card but had a problem in the DMA engine....The audio was re sampled back to 16 bits...how ever it was better than normal 16 bits cause first the audio was converted to 24bits n then to 16 bits.....but the output was 16bit audio......The Audigy also had a improved SNR over the Live!(Live=96,Audigy=100)

2002
Audigy 2
The main advantage on the Audigy 2 processor was that it could play true 24bit/96Khz DVD audio......the chip was called EMU10K2.5.....It also features built in Dolby Digital EX 6.1 decoding...SNR was improved 100 to 106...

2003
Audigy 2 ZS
Same as Audigy 2 .....a bit improved....it was a 7.1 channel card and could decode DTS/DTS ES as well......SNR was also improved 106 to 108.....

Also in 2003 Audigy Value/SE was introduced....It was a stripped down Audigy with no hardware capabilities....all the processing was loaded on to the CPU..They also introduced the Live!24bit....Basically same as Audigy SE but different branding....

2004
Audigy 4 Pro actually used the same Audigy 2 ZS chip but with better DACs(4x CS4398)...The SNR was boosted to 113 over the 108 of the Audigy2ZS.....and of course some software upgrades......The external breakout box also came with the Audigy 4 Pro.....

Models
1.Sound Blaster Audigy
2.Audigy ES
3.Audigy 2 Platinum EX
4.Audigy Platinum
5.Audigy Platinum EX
6.Audigy LS(SE)
7.Sound Blaster Audigy LS
8.Audigy Value
9.Audigy 2 NX(External Device)
10.Audigy 2
11.Sound Blaster Audigy 2 SE
12.Audigy 2 ZS
13.Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
14.Audigy 2 Platinum
15.Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
16.Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor (External USB device which acts as a video editor and hardware accalarated video+7.1 sound as well)
17.Audigy 2 ZS Notebook(PCMCA)
18.Audigy 4(Pro,SE,Value)
19.Sound Blaster Audigy mp3+

Platinum=Card+Front bay
Platinum Pro/EX=External Breakout box

2005=X-Fi A new world of sound
Sound Blaster X-Fi(Extreme Fidelity)....It had a new chip a 130 nm EMU20K1 audio chip operates at 400 MHz and has 51 million transistors.Audigy operated at 200Mhz and had 4 million transistors.....The power of the processor was estimated as 10000 MIPS(million instructions per second) 24 times its previous processor Audigy.......The Audigy cards DSP was locked to 16bits/48kHz but the X-Fi offers 24bit DSP......

One of the major features was Advanced HD 5.0 which supports up to 128 3D-positioned voices with up to four effects applied to each.....
And the famous 24bit Crystallizer..... Crystallizer is something like the noise sharpening DSP in Foobar........with the help of the Crystallizer low bit rate mp3s can sound like decent bit rate mp3s......

Models
1.X-Fi Xtreme Audio(Advance version of the Audigy SE/Value with no hardware capabilities(Loads the processing on the CPU),lack of Advance HD 5.0,Dont have a actual X-Fi chip/Low profile)

2.X-Fi Xtreme Music(The best bang for the buck so far..Has every X-Fi feature except for 64mb Xram)

3.X-Fi PCI Express Xtreme Audio(Same Xtreme Audio on PCE Express bus)

4.X-Fi Platinum(Basically Xtreme Music with a front bay)

5.X-Fi Xtreme Gamer(Same as Xtreme Music with 2mb or more ram/Low Profile card)

6.X-Fi Fatal1ty(With 64mb Xram)

7.X-Fi Fatal1ty Platinum(With 64mb Xram+Front bay)

8.X-Fi Elite Pro(Uses better DACs and better OPAMPs+External Breakout Box+64 Xram)

9.X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook(PCMCA)

More Questions about X-Fi------------------>DJ.BigBear

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Gollie · 02-19-08

Good read.

+rep

DJ.BigBear · 02-19-08

good history lesson.... too bad i'm not too interested

thx for your effort tho

Stillhouse · 02-19-08

If you're going to basically copy/paste from Wikipedia, at least give the source link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster

chanster · 02-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stillhouse

If you're going to basically copy/paste from Wikipedia, at least give the source link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster

Sorry forgot......

DJ.BigBear · 02-19-08

.................................................. ........... so it's a copied material? .............................................

maxSnoopy · 02-20-08

It doesn't matter whether u copy and paste it..But this sure helps a lot.......

fps_dean · 03-31-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stillhouse

If you're going to basically copy/paste from Wikipedia, at least give the source link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster

Yeah that would be nice, but it's easier being able to read it right in this forum to so thanks for taking the time to do that.

02-20-08	#7 (permalink)
maxSnoopy New to Overclock.net Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 5 Rep: 0 Unique Rep: 0 Trader Rating: 0	Thanx anyway Chanster..! It doesn't matter whether u copy and paste it..But this sure helps a lot.......

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Creative Sound Blaster Timeline

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