Yes, I suspect I really should stop & find something else to do.
Flush with the success of having remade the venerable Mockingboard in my own image, and done an FM synthesis version, I couldn't help myself. How about a Commodore SID sound board? I went with a 6581 as the Apple II bus provides all the necessary voltages. The wiring could be described as a superset of the Mockingboard standard... you never know it *might* produce some sound as-is with current software but what I'm really going for is easy conversion of an Apple II Mockingboard proggie to be able to play SID files. The card as designed is set up with a mono in and mono out so it could be daisy-chained between the Apple II system sound and a Mockingboard compatible, or used on it's own. Running a single SID chip and no amplification of it's own made the design much simpler than my Mockingbird.
Of course I can't code for toffee... So if anyone feels like testing the design out by writing a little software let me know and I'll knock up a prototype or two to try. In the meantime I'm going to leave this one as a concept as I won't be able to do anything with it myself. The chip addressing is left entirely dependant on the slot used, so if this card ever becomes a reality it would be best if any software written expected a slot other than slot 4 to avoid clashes with Mockingboards and their software.
6581 "SID" Card Design for the Apple II
Flush with the success of having remade the venerable Mockingboard in my own image, and done an FM synthesis version, I couldn't help myself. How about a Commodore SID sound board? I went with a 6581 as the Apple II bus provides all the necessary voltages. The wiring could be described as a superset of the Mockingboard standard... you never know it *might* produce some sound as-is with current software but what I'm really going for is easy conversion of an Apple II Mockingboard proggie to be able to play SID files. The card as designed is set up with a mono in and mono out so it could be daisy-chained between the Apple II system sound and a Mockingboard compatible, or used on it's own. Running a single SID chip and no amplification of it's own made the design much simpler than my Mockingbird.
Of course I can't code for toffee... So if anyone feels like testing the design out by writing a little software let me know and I'll knock up a prototype or two to try. In the meantime I'm going to leave this one as a concept as I won't be able to do anything with it myself. The chip addressing is left entirely dependant on the slot used, so if this card ever becomes a reality it would be best if any software written expected a slot other than slot 4 to avoid clashes with Mockingboards and their software.
6581 "SID" Card Design for the Apple II
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