
KS0164 MULTIMEDIA AUDIO
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GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The
KS0164
is a highly integrated wavetable
synthesizer chip, designed to be a part of a high-
performance, low-cost multimedia audio systems.
The chip contains a complete 32-voice, 16-bit,
44.1kHz wavetable synthesizer, a high-performance
16-bit CPU, extensive compatibility with established
standard audio interfaces, all necessary system glue
logic and total software configurability. With its on-
chip CPU, a KS0164-based synthesizer imposes
absolutely minimal host CPU overhead. Its
hardware-based MPU-401 emulation completely
eliminates the memory overhead, software
compatibility and stability problems of TSR-based
emulations. The following sections give a brief
description of the major functional blocks of the
KS0164.
H
OST
PC I
NTERFACE
All necessary ISA bus interface logic is completely
contained on-chip. This includes address decoding
for the MPU-401 emulation, control signal
interpretation, and optional data bus buffer control.
All PC interface control logic operates completely
asynchronously to the synthesizer/CPU logic.
Standard interfacing techniques are used to provide
a highly compatible and reliable interface.
The MPU-401 emulation can be decoded for any
one of four standard address ranges, as selected by
the BAS[1:0] pins. In addition, a serial MIDI interface
may be used, leaving the MPU-401 emulation
inactive. This mode is particularly useful for stand-
alone synthesizer modules and WaveBlaster-type
daughter board applications.
To better support non-PC-based applications,
including stand-alone applications where no host
CPU is available, the reset signal polarity is
programmable via the HRSTPOL pin, to
accommodate existing active high or active low
reset signals.
MPU-401 I
NTERFACE
One of the two available interfaces for
communicating MIDI data to/from the KS0164 is the
on-chip MPU-401 emulation. This emulation
provides the full hardware functionality of a real
MPU-401. MPU-401 UART mode is fully supported,
while a subset of the
i
ntelligent
mode commands
are also supported. The intelligent-mode support
currently provided is adequate to support nearly all
existing MPU-401 applications.
MIDI UART I
NTERFACE
The second of the two available interfaces for
communicating MIDI data to/from the KS0164 is the
on-chip of MIDI UART. This interface is always
active, and works independently from the MPU-401
emulation, allowing the KS0164 to easily be used in
stand-alone MIDI modules and WaveBlaster-type
daughter board applications.
E
MBEDDED
CPU
In sharp contrast to most other low-cost multimedia
audio solutions currently available, the KS0164 does
not rely on the host PC processor or an external
microcontroller to drive the wavetable synthesizer.
Rather, the KS0164 contains a high-performance
purpose-built 16-bit CPU incorporating such
advanced features as six different addressing
modes, a hardware multiplier, a barrel shifter, and a
peak execution rate of nearly 3 million instructions
per second. In addition to providing optimal
synthesizer audio quality, this reduces host PC CPU
overhead. The considerable memory overhead,
compatibility problems, and erratic audio quality
associated with TSR-based solutions are also
completely eliminated.
S
YNTHESIZER
The synthesizer is a high-performance 32-voice, 16-
bit wavetable synthesizer. While nearly all
wavetable systems being offered today operate at
sample rates ranging anywhere from 22-32kHz, the
KS0164 performs all sample processing at a full
44.1 kHz. In addition, some other systems support
only 12-bit samples. The KS0164, on the other
hand, supports 8- and 16-bit linear samples, and 8-
and 12-bit compressed samples. This allows nearly
optimal tradeoffs between sample size and audio
quality on a sample-by-sample basis in the design of
the sample set, resulting in the best possible sound
quality from a given total sample memory size.