8bitsound.htm

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<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Sound Generation Using 8-bit Chips</H1>
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<A HREF="index.htm">HOME</A>&nbsp;&gt;&nbsp;<A HREF="make.htm">Creative Technology</A>&nbsp;&gt;&nbsp;<B>8-bit sound</B>
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Ever since I installed an AY-3-8910 Programmable Sound Generator chip in
the <A HREF="uk101.htm">Compukit UK101</A>,
I've been interested in sound generation on 8-bit machines.
The modern ATmega chips are, of course, 8-bit microcontrollers.
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Several designs were popular in the 1980s for generating sound effects and
music in video games.
The General Instrument AY-3-8910 was one of the early digital sound
generators.
Probably the best known sound chip was the Commodore 64's
<ACRONYM TITLE="Sound Interface Device">SID</ACRONYM>, also known
as the 6581.
Later sound chips by Yamaha were designed as improvements on the AY-3-8910.
Later still, PC-based sound cards were introduced with chip and chip-sets
such as the OPL3.
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My goal is to connect a classic sound chip to the Atmel AVR microcontroller
in an <A HREF="http://www.arduino.cc">Arduino</A> board.
The Arduino can already generate rudimentary sound using the 'tone'
library, but I'd like to connect an external sound chip and recreate
those 8-bit sounds on the original hardware.
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