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90-467: WSS featured support for up to 16-bit, 48 kHz digital sampling, beyond the capabilities of the popular Sound Blaster Pro , although it was less frequently supported than Sound Blaster and Gravis sound cards, as well as Roland sound cards, daughterboards , and sound modules . In addition, the WSS featured RCA analog audio outputs, an uncommon feature among sound cards of this era; other connections were

180-581: A 9-voice (11 voices in drum mode) FM synthesizer using the Yamaha YM3812 chip, also known as OPL2 . It provided compatibility with the market leader AdLib sound card, which had gained support in PC games in the preceding year. Creative used the "DSP" acronym to designate the digital audio part of the Sound Blaster. This stood for Digital Sound Processor, rather than the more common digital signal processor , and

270-536: A PCI busmaster interface to access sample-data stored in the host-PC's system memory. A/D- and D/A- converters as well as analogue mixing is done by an AC'97 chip running at 48 kHz sampling rate. All members of the SB Live! family have at least four-channel analog audio outputs and a 15-pin MIDI/Joystick multiport. For game titles, EAX 1.0 (and later 2.0) ( environmental audio extensions , which briefly competed with

360-482: A PCI busmaster interface. Analogue interfacing is done by a codec chip, which runs at a fixed sampling frequency of 44 (Ensoniq Audio PCI) or 48 kHz (Creative's versions). (ISA soundcards had not resampled but switched between different time bases.) ES137x do not support SoundFonts but a filter-less MIDI engine with wavetable ( sample table) sets of 2, 4, and 8   MB size. When the Sound Blaster Live!

450-454: A PCIe interface, but lacks the EMU10K DSP. Screen-printing Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye ) onto a substrate , except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil . A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen in a "flood stroke" to fill the open mesh apertures with ink, and a reverse stroke then causes

540-485: A fully decoded MIDI interface with separate Input and Output (along with on mini-DIN converter.) The Gold highlighted many features aimed at music composition; ease-of-use ( plug-and-play for musicians), real-time loopback-recording of the MIDI-synthesizer (with full freedom of Soundfonts, and environmental effects such as reverb, etc.), and bundled MIDI-software. The mainstream model was the Sound Blaster Live! Like

630-452: A fully-compatible Sound Blaster card that came with a game port, saved a slot, and included the "DSP" for not much more in price, many consumers opted for the Sound Blaster. In-game support for the digital portion of the card did not happen until after the Sound Blaster had gained dominance. When Microsoft announced Multimedia PC (MPC) in November 1990, it suggested to developers that they use

720-569: A microphone input, a stereo line input and a stereo headphone output. WSS was supported by most popular DOS sound libraries developed in the 1990s, such as the Miles Sound System and HMI Sound Operating System, as well as less popular ones such as Loudness Sound System, Digital Sound Interface Kit, Digital Sound & Music Interface and Junglevision Sound Drive. Much like with the Intel High Definition Audio standard of today,

810-439: A preferred choice for large-scale production of printed electronic devices. While screen printing offers tremendous potential in printed electronics, it also faces certain challenges. Fine-line resolution, compatibility with advanced materials, and the need for precise registration pose ongoing research and development opportunities. However, continuous advancements in ink formulations, equipment, and process optimization are paving

900-441: A proprietary memory format which could be (expensively) purchased from Creative. The main improvements were better compatibility with older SB models, and an improved signal-to-noise ratio . The AWE64 came in two versions: A standard version (later rebranded as Value ) with 512   KB of RAM and a Gold version with 4 MB of RAM and a separate S/PDIF output. In 1998, Creative acquired Ensoniq Corporation , manufacturer of

990-777: A reputation bolstered by the publication of his 1937 booklet Technical Problems of the Artist: Technique of the Silkscreen Process. Guido Lengweiler has corrected this misunderstanding in his book, A History of Screen Printing , published in English in 2016. Outgrowths of these WPA poster shops, at least two New York City studios in wartime started decorating ceramic tiles with fire-on underglaze applied by silkscreen starting as early as 1939: Esteban Soriano and Harold Ambellan 's workshop called Designed Tiles . The Printers' National Environmental Assistance Center says, "Screenprinting

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1080-406: A reservoir of ink. The operator lifts the screen to prevent contact with the substrate and then using a slight amount of downward force pulls the fill bar to the front of the screen. This effectively fills the mesh openings with ink and moves the ink reservoir to the front of the screen. The operator then uses a squeegee (rubber blade) to move the mesh down to the substrate and pushes the squeegee to

1170-502: A single floppy with the basic utilities and game patches to allow Sierra Online 's games using the Sierra Creative Interpreter engine to play music with the card and it also included a later revision of the game Silpheed that added C/MS support. In 2017 hobbyists developed a clone CT1300 PCB. The Sound Blaster 1.0 (code named " Killer Kard "), CT1320A, was released in 1989. In addition to Game Blaster features, it has

1260-419: A variety of materials, such as textiles, ceramics, wood, paper, glass, metal, and plastic. As a result, screen printing is used in many different industries, including: In screen printing on wafer-based solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, the mesh and buses of silver are printed on the front; furthermore, the buses of silver are printed on the back. Subsequently, aluminum paste is dispensed over the whole surface of

1350-412: A water spray, leaving behind a clean area in the mesh with the identical shape as the desired image, which will allow passage of ink. It is a positive process. In fabric printing, the surface supporting the fabric to be printed (commonly referred to as a pallet) is coated with a wide 'pallet tape'. This serves to protect the 'pallet' from any unwanted ink leaking through the screen and potentially staining

1440-457: A widely adopted technique in the printing industry, has found its niche in the realm of printed electronics. Its versatility and ability to deposit thick layers of inks make it ideal for creating conductive tracks, sensors, and other electronic components. Furthermore, screen printing offers advantages such as high throughput, low production costs, and compatibility with a wide range of substrates, including flexible materials. These attributes make it

1530-521: Is a family of sound cards and audio peripherals designed by Creative Technology/Creative Labs of Singapore . The first Sound Blaster card was introduced in 1989. Sound Blaster sound cards were the de facto standard for consumer audio on the IBM PC compatible platform until the widespread transition to Microsoft Windows 95 and the integration of commoditized audio electronics in PCs. Windows 95 standardized

1620-512: Is a simple microcontroller from the Intel MCS-51 family (supplied by Intel and Matra MHS , among others). It can play back 8-bit monaural sampled sound at up to 23 kHz sampling frequency and record 8-bit at up to 12 kHz. The sole DSP-like features of the circuit are ADPCM decompression and a primitive non-MPU-401-compatible MIDI interface. The ADPCM decompression schemes supported are 2 to 1, 3 to 1 and 4 to 1. The CT1320B variety of

1710-430: Is a union between analog screen printing and traditional digital direct-to-garment printing, two of the most common textile embellishment technologies in use today. Essentially, digital hybrid screen printing is an automatic screen-printing press with a CMYK digital enhancement located on one of the screen print stations. Digital hybrid screen printing is capable of variable data options, creating endless customizations, with

1800-453: Is arguably the most versatile of all printing processes. Since rudimentary screenprinting materials are so affordable and readily available, it has been used frequently in underground settings and subcultures , and the non-professional look of such DIY culture screenprints have become a significant cultural aesthetic seen on movie posters, record album covers, flyers, shirts, commercial fonts in advertising, in artwork and elsewhere. Credit

1890-545: Is essentially an Audigy 2 with updated DAC and op-amps . Audigy 2 ZS uses the Cirrus Logic CS4382 DAC together with the op-amps and can produce an output SNR of 108 dB. There were a few slight printed circuit board modifications and 7.1 audio support was added. Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro (November 2004) was an Audigy 2 ZS with updated DACs and ADCs , the new DAC being the Cirrus Logic CS4398, boosting

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1980-429: Is given to the artist Andy Warhol for popularising screen printing as an artistic technique. Warhol's silk screens include his 1962 Marilyn Diptych , which is a portrait of the actress Marilyn Monroe printed in bold colours. Warhol was supported in his production by master screen printer Michel Caza , a founding member of Fespa . Sister Mary Corita Kent gained international fame for her vibrant serigraphs during

2070-531: Is made of polyester. There are special-use mesh materials of nylon and stainless steel available to the screen-printer. There are also different types of mesh size which will determine the outcome and look of the finished design on the material. The technique is used not only for garment printing but for printing on many other substances, including decals, clock and watch faces, balloons, and many other products. Advanced uses include laying down conductors and resistors in multi-layer circuits using thin ceramic layers as

2160-551: Is misleading—see the pictures for size comparison). It offered similar features to the AWE32, but also had a few notable improvements, including support for greater polyphony , although this was a product of 32 extra software-emulated channels (the additional channels could also be obtained on AWE32 hardware by using the AWE64's driver software). The 30-pin SIMM slots from AWE32/SB32 were replaced with

2250-517: Is more in line with the Audigy 2 Value series. The Audigy 4 had a shorter life span than its predecessors, due to the short window between it and the next-generation Sound Blaster X-Fi. Sound Blaster Audigy Rx (September 2013) is similar to the Audigy 4 but with a dedicated 600-ohm headphone amplifier and a PCIe 1x interface. Sound Blaster Audigy Fx (September 2013) also features a 600-ohm amplifier and

2340-414: Is the only way to make high-build fully patterned printing/coating as a continuous process, and has been widely used for manufacturing textured wallpapers. Textile items printed with multi-coloured designs often use a wet on wet technique, or colours dried while on the press, while graphic items are allowed to dry between colours that are then printed with another screen and often in a different colour after

2430-621: The National Serigraph Society , including WPA artists Max Arthur Cohn , Anthony Velonis and Hyman Warsager , coined the word "serigraphy" in the 1930s to differentiate the artistic application of screen printing from the industrial use of the process. "Serigraphy" is a compound word formed from Latin "sēricum" (silk) and Greek "graphein" (to write or draw). Historians of the New York WPA poster shop give sole credit to Anthony Velonis for establishing Silkscreen methods used there,

2520-628: The Sound Blaster 16 for the OEM market. Creative Labs also used this chip for the Sound Blaster 32, Phone Blaster and Phone Blaster 28.8 (VIBRA plus modem, CT3120 and CT3220.) and many other value-edition cards. External Yamaha OPL3 FM music synthesis was retained in earlier boards built around the ViBRA16 or ViBRA16s controllers, whilst the later (and more common) ViBRA16 boards used CQM (Creative Quadratic Modulation) developed by E-mu Systems . This series included

2610-615: The Vibra chip to reduce component count, which meant bass/treble/gain control was limited compared to the AWE32. The loss of onboard RAM is offset by the inclusion of 30-pin SIMM RAM sockets, which allow up to 28 MB RAM to be installed and used by the EMU engine. The AWE32's successor, the Sound Blaster AWE64 (November 1996), was significantly smaller, being a "half-length ISA card" (that term

2700-411: The 'pallet' or transferring unwanted ink onto the next substrate. The pallet tape is also used to protect the pallet from the usage of glue that keeps the substrate adhered and in place on the pallet. Over time the pallet tape will become covered with lint which it then can be removed, discarded, and replaced by new pallet tape. Next, the screen and frame are lined with a tape to prevent ink from reaching

2790-430: The 1960s and 1970s. Her works were rainbow coloured, contained words that were both political, and fostered peace and love and caring. American entrepreneur, artist and inventor Michael Vasilantone started to use, develop, and sell a rotatable multicolour garment screen printing machine in 1960. Vasilantone later filed for a patent on his invention in 1967 granted number 3,427,964 on 18 February 1969. The original machine

Windows Sound System - Misplaced Pages Continue

2880-466: The 3.5 mm jack ports as an SPDIF out, which allowed the connection of an external decoder. Creative also released a Sound Blaster Live! Player 1024 edition, which is identical to the regular Sound Blaster Live! , but with the addition of some extra software. The Sound Blaster PCI 512 (CT4790) is an EMU10K1-based sound card designed to fill a lower cost segment than the Live! Value. It is capable of most of

2970-613: The AWE32 design, the Sound Blaster 32 (SB32) was a value-oriented offering from Creative. Announced on June 6, 1995, the SB32 became the new entry-level card in the AWE32 product-line (previously held by the AWE32 Value .) The SB32 retained the AWE32's EMU8000/EMU8011 MIDI-synthesis engine and built-in instrument ROM, but dropped the onboard RAM , the Wave Blaster header, and the CSP port. The SB32 used

3060-547: The AudioPCI, a card popular with OEMs at the time. It was a full-featured solution with wavetable MIDI ( sample-based synthesizer ), 4-speaker DirectSound3D surround sound, A3D emulation, and DOS legacy support via a terminate-and-stay-resident program . It was cheap due to lack of hardware acceleration. It is full-duplex but at least in MS Windows cannot play back several sources at once. Creative released many cards using

3150-594: The C/MS board in particular, the Philips chips had white pieces of paper with a fictitious "CMS-301" inscription on them. Real Creative parts usually had consistent CT number references. Surprisingly, the board also contained a large 40-pin DIP integrated circuit bearing a "CT 1302A CTPL 8708" (Creative Technology Programmable Logic) serigraphed inscription and looking exactly like the DSP of

3240-566: The Creative digital audio section (audio codec , optional CSP/ASP chip socket, Yamaha OPL3), and the E-mu MIDI synthesizer section. The synthesizer section consisted of the EMU8000 sampler and effects processor, an EMU8011 1 MB sample ROM, and 512 KB of sample RAM (expandable to 28 MB). To fit the new hardware, the AWE32 was a full-length ISA card , measuring 14 in (360 mm). A derivative of

3330-738: The Creative/Tandy Multimedia Sound Adapter, 849–3030. This Sound Blaster Pro derived card was factory installed in Tandy Multimedia PCs. It combined the CT1330 with Tandy joystick and MIDI ports (not MPU-401 compatible). The revised version, the Sound Blaster Pro 2, CT1600, replaced the YM3812s with a more advanced Yamaha YMF262 ( OPL3 ). Otherwise it is functionally identical to the original Sound Blaster Pro. Shortly after

3420-456: The EMU10K1 in the original Live!), and all audio had to be resampled to 48 kHz in order to be accepted by the DSP (for recording or rendering to output.) Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (September 2002) featured an updated EMU10K2 processor, sometimes referred to as EMU10K2.5, with an improved DMA engine capable of 24-bit precision. Up to 192 kHz was supported for stereo playback/record, while 6.1

3510-415: The EMU10K1 processor that shipped with the Sound Blaster Live! . The Audigy could process up to four EAX environments simultaneously with its upgraded on-chip DSP and native EAX 3.0 ADVANCED HD support, and supported up to 5.1-channel output. The Audigy was controversially advertised as a 24-bit sound card. The EMU10K2's audio transport (DMA engine) was fixed at 16-bit sample precision at 48 kHz (like

3600-459: The Gold, the Live featured multi-speaker analog output (up to four channels), and identical music/sound generation capabilities (without the bundled MIDI software and interfacing-equipment.) Later versions of the Live!, usually called Live! 5.1 , offered 5.1-channel support which adds a center channel speaker and LFE subwoofer output, most useful for movie watching. The Live! 5.1 could also use one of

3690-472: The ISA bus. While at first glance it appears to be a 16-bit ISA card, it does not have 'fingers' for data transfer on the higher "AT" portion of the bus connector. It uses the 16-bit extension to the ISA bus to provide the user with an additional choice for an IRQ (10) and DMA (0)m channel only found on the 16-bit portion of the edge connector. A short lived joint developed project between Creative and Tandy resulted in

Windows Sound System - Misplaced Pages Continue

3780-401: The Live! Value's features aside from being limited to 512 MIDI voice polyphony (a software-based limitation), lacking digital I/O , removal of expansion headers , and only stereo or quadraphonic output support. The card's circuit layout is somewhat simpler than that of the Live! series. The Sound Blaster Audigy (August 2001) featured the Audigy processor (EMU10K2), an improved version of

3870-514: The Microsoft MPC standard. . The Sound Blaster Pro supported faster digital input and output sampling rates (up to 22.05 kHz stereo or 44.1 kHz mono), added a " mixer " to provide a crude master volume control (independent of the volume of sound sources feeding the mixer), and a crude high pass or low pass filter. The Sound Blaster Pro used a pair of YM3812 chips to provide stereo music-synthesis (one for each channel). The Sound Blaster Pro

3960-532: The SB/Live family was the SB Live! Gold . Featuring gold tracings on all major analog traces and external sockets, an EMI -suppressing printed circuit board substrate and lacquer , the Gold came standard with a daughterboard that implemented a separate 4-channel alternative mini-DIN digital output to Creative-branded internal- DAC speaker sets, a S/P-DIF digital audio Input and Output with separate software mappings, and

4050-507: The Sound Blaster 1.0 typically has C/MS chips installed in sockets rather than soldered on the PCB, though units do exist with the C/MS chips soldered on. Some sources note that the original Sound Blaster 1.0 was produced under the CT1310 number. This however is a topic of ongoing debate. Creative refers to CT1310 for the Sound Blaster 1.0 on its website. In less than a year, the Sound Blaster became

4140-471: The Sound Blaster 1.5, CT1320C, dropped the C/MS chips, which were no longer popular with game developers. Instead, the board had two empty sockets, which could be user upgraded by purchasing the C/MS chips directly from Creative or Phillips SAA-1099s from another source. Otherwise the card functions identically to the Sound Blaster 1.0. The CT1320U variety has the same layout as the CT1320C. The final revision of

4230-505: The Sound Blaster Pro. The kit bundled the sound card, a Matsushita CD-ROM drive (model 531 for single-speed, or 562/3 for the later double-speed (2x) drives), and several CD-ROMs of multimedia software titles. As CD-ROM technology was new, the kit included CD-ROM software, representing a very good value to customers. One such kit, named "OmniCD", included the 2x Matsushita drive along with an ISA controller card and software, including Software Toolworks Encyclopedia and Aldus PhotoStyler SE. It

4320-448: The Sound Blaster as it was the only sound card that came close to complying with the MPC standard. The press speculated that Microsoft based the MPC standard on the Sound Blaster's specifications. By 1993 Computer Gaming World wondered "why would a gamer" buy a competing AdLib card that was not Sound Blaster-compatible. Creative advertised the Sound Blaster 16 ("the 16-bit sound standard") with

4410-650: The United States. Graphic screen-printing is widely used today to create mass- or large-batch produced graphics, such as posters or display stands. Full colour prints can be created by printing in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). Screen printing lends itself well to printing on canvas. Andy Warhol , Arthur Okamura , Robert Rauschenberg , Roy Lichtenstein , Harry Gottlieb and many other artists have used screen printing as an expression of creativity and artistic vision. Another variation, digital hybrid screen printing,

4500-537: The ViBRA16 (CT2501), ViBRA16s (CT2502, CT2504), ViBRA16c (CT2505) PnP and ViBRA16XV (CT2511) chips. The primary advantage of the ViBRA16 was the inclusion of a 14.4 kbit/s telephony Modem; it also functioned as a telephone. Released in March 1994, the Sound Blaster AWE32 (Advanced WavEffects) introduced an all new MIDI synthesizer section based on the EMU8000. The AWE32 consisted of two distinct audio sections;

4590-987: The actual hardware was also standardized as well. WSS was based on the Analog Devices AD1848 codec chip and had an on-board Yamaha YMF262-M (OPL3) FM synthesis sound chip for MIDI playback (supporting up to 18 simultaneous MIDI voices). WSS 1.0a drivers were released in February 1993. They introduced single-mode DMA , supported games in MS-DOS, Ad Lib and Sound Blaster emulation. WSS 2.0 drivers, released in October 1993, added support for OEM sound cards ( Media Vision , Creative Labs , ESS Technology ) and included an improved DOS driver (WSSXLAT.EXE) that provided Sound Blaster 16 compatibility for digital sampling. However, they did not provide support for FM or " wavetable synthesis ". Sound Blaster Pro Sound Blaster

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4680-430: The added ability of screen print specific techniques. A screen is made of a piece of mesh stretched over a frame. The mesh could be made of a synthetic polymer , such as nylon , and a finer and smaller aperture for the mesh would be utilized for a design that requires a higher and more delicate degree of detail. For the mesh to be effective, it must be mounted on a frame and it must be under tension. The frame which holds

4770-534: The auto-init DMA and new MIDI capabilities of the Sound Blaster 2.0 but not the expanded sampling rates. The upgrade was necessary for full compatibility with the Windows 3.0 Multimedia Extensions upgrade. Sound Blaster MCV, CT5320, was a version created for IBM PS/2 Model 50 and higher and their ISA-incompatible Micro Channel architecture . The MCV Sound Blaster has some issues outputting audio while running on PS/2s with CPUs running faster than 16 MHz. However,

4860-419: The back for passivation and surface reflection. One of the parameters that can vary and can be controlled in screen printing is the thickness of the print. This makes it useful for some of the techniques of printing solar cells, electronics etc. Solar wafers are becoming thinner and larger, so careful printing is required to maintain a lower breakage rate, though high throughput at the printing stage improves

4950-439: The card itself, it failed for a number of DOS games that either were not fully compatible with this CPU mode or needed so much free conventional memory that they could not be loaded with the driver occupying part of this memory. In Microsoft Windows , there was no problem, as Creative's Windows driver software could handle both ISA and PCI cards correctly. The Sound Blaster ViBRA16 was an inexpensive single-chip implementation of

5040-424: The commercial screen printing industry by introducing photo-imaged stencils to the industry, though the acceptance of this method would take many years. Commercial screen printing now uses sensitizers far safer and less toxic than bichromates. Currently, there are large selections of pre-sensitized and "user mixed" sensitized emulsion chemicals for creating photo-reactive stencils. A group of artists who later formed

5130-435: The copper and solder-stop layers ). Typical names for these service print overlays include tSilk / bSilk aka PLC / PLS or TSK / BSK ( EAGLE ), F.SilkS / B.SilkS ( KiCad ), PosiTop / PosiBot ( TARGET ), silkTop / silkBottom ( Fritzing ), SST / SSB ( OrCAD ), ST.PHO / SB.PHO ( PADS ), SEVS / SERS ( WEdirekt ) or GTO / GBO (Gerber and many others ). Screen printing,

5220-519: The east and a profitable outlet for the medium discovered. Early in the 1910s, several printers experimenting with photo-reactive chemicals used the well-known actinic light –activated cross linking or hardening traits of potassium, sodium or ammonium chromate and dichromate chemicals with glues and gelatin compounds. Roy Beck, Charles Peter and Edward Owens studied and experimented with chromic acid salt sensitized emulsions for photo-reactive stencils. This trio of developers would prove to revolutionize

5310-422: The edge of the screen and the frame. The type of tape used in for this purpose often depends upon the ink that is to be printed onto the substrate. More aggressive tapes are generally used for UV and water-based inks due to the inks' lower viscosities and greater tendency to creep underneath tape. The last process in the 'pre-press' is blocking out any unwanted 'pin-holes' in the emulsion. If these holes are left in

5400-409: The emulsion, the ink will continue through and leave unwanted marks. To block out these holes, materials such as tapes, speciality emulsions and 'block-out pens' may be used effectively. The screen is placed atop a substrate. Ink is placed on top of the screen, and a floodbar is used to push the ink through the holes in the mesh. The operator begins with the fill bar at the rear of the screen and behind

5490-579: The joystick interface is still inoperable on PS/2s it was designed for due to the slow-speed Schottky chips that have been installed. None of these timing issues affect the Yamaha YM3812. Some of the MCV Sound Blasters were released with faster Schottkys which eradicated some of the problems. Model CT1330, announced in May 1991, was the first significant redesign of the card's core features, and complied with

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5580-434: The later Sound Blaster. Software, including Creative's own, use this chip to automatically detect the card (by trying certain register reads and writes). A year later, in 1988, Creative marketed the C/MS via Radio Shack under the name Game Blaster . This card was identical in every way to the precursor C/MS hardware. Whereas the C/MS package came with five floppy disks full of utilities and song files, Creative supplied only

5670-500: The launch of the Sound Blaster 16 and related products. Rich Sorkin was General Manager of the global business during this time, responsible for product planning, product management, marketing and OEM sales. Moving the card off the ISA bus, which was already approaching obsolescence, meant that no line for host-controlled ISA DMA was available, because the PCI slot offers no such line. Instead, the card used PCI bus mastering to transfer data from

5760-513: The main memory to the D/A converters. Since existing DOS programs expected to be able to initiate host-controlled ISA DMA for producing sound, backward compatibility with the older Sound Blaster cards for DOS programs required a software driver work-around; since this work-around necessarily depended on the virtual 8086 mode of the PC's CPU in order to catch and reroute accesses from the ISA DMA controller to

5850-430: The mesh could be made of diverse materials, such as wood, metal, or aluminum, depending on the sophistication of the machine or the artisan procedure. The tension of the mesh may be checked by using a tensiometer; a common unit for the measurement of the tension of the mesh is Newton per centimeter (N/cm). A stencil is formed by blocking off parts of the screen in the negative image of the design to be printed; that is,

5940-426: The now defunct A3D 2.0 ) added hardware-accelerated acoustic effects. The EMU10K1 provided high-quality 64-voice sample-based synthesizer (marketed as "Wavetable"), with self-produced or third-party customized patches or "Soundfonts", and the ability to resample the audio output as input and apply a range of real-time DSP effects to any set of audio subchannels present in the device. The first model and flagship of

6030-441: The open spaces are where the ink will appear on the substrate. Before printing occurs, the frame and screen must undergo the pre-press process, in which an emulsion is 'scooped' across the mesh. Once this emulsion has dried, it is selectively exposed to ultra-violet light, through a film printed with the required design. This hardens the emulsion in the exposed areas but leaves the unexposed parts soft. They are then washed away using

6120-459: The opening music of Space Quest III with the card as "extraordinary", praising the quality compared to the Roland MT-32 and Ad Lib versions. Compute! approved of the card's DMA and Creative's dissemination of technical information, and concluded that while the more-expensive MT-32 was superior, Sound Blaster's audio quality was better than that of Ad Lib or Game Blaster. Released in 1990,

6210-533: The original AudioPCI chip, Ensoniq ES1370 , and several boards using revised versions of this chip ( ES1371 and ES1373 ), and some with Creative-labeled AudioPCI chips. Boards using AudioPCI tech are usually easily identifiable by the board design and the chip size because they all look quite similar. Such boards include Sound Blaster PCI64 (April 1998), PCI128 (July 1998), Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI , Vibra PCI and Sound Blaster 16 PCI . An ES137x chip contains three stereo sample rate converters, some buffers and

6300-469: The original Sound Blaster, the Sound Blaster 2.0 was released in October 1991, CT1350, added support for " auto-init " DMA , which assisted in producing a continuous loop of double-buffered sound output. Similar to version 1.0 and 1.5, it used a 1-channel 8-bit DAC. However, the maximum sampling rate was increased to 44 kHz for playback, and 15 kHz for record. The DSP's MIDI UART was upgraded to full-duplex and offered time stamping features, but

6390-413: The output SNR to 113 dB. Other than a breakout box , it has no distinguishable difference from the Audigy 2 ZS. The DSP is identical to the Audigy 2 ZS's but Creative put an "Audigy 4" sticker to cover the chip, making it appear as if it is a new chip. The Audigy 4 Pro is not to be confused with the Audigy 4 (Value) which contains lower quality DACs and does not have golden plated jacks. The Audigy 4 (Value)

6480-409: The product is re-aligned on the press. Most screens are ready for re-coating at this stage, but sometimes screens will have to undergo a further step in the reclaiming process called de-hazing. This additional step removes haze or "ghost images" left behind in the screen once the emulsion has been removed. Ghost images tend to faintly outline the open areas of previous stencils, hence the name. They are

6570-475: The programming interface at the application level and thereby eliminated the importance of backward compatibility with Sound Blaster cards. By 1995, Sound Blaster cards had sold over 15 million units worldwide and accounted for seven out of ten sound card sales. To date, Sound Blaster has sold over 400 million units, and their current product lineup includes USB -powered DACs as well as other audio adapters. The history of Creative sound cards started with

6660-400: The rear of the screen. The ink that is in the mesh opening is pumped or squeezed by capillary action to the substrate in a controlled and prescribed amount, i.e. the wet ink deposit is proportional to the thickness of the mesh and or stencil. As the squeegee moves toward the rear of the screen the tension of the mesh pulls the mesh up away from the substrate (called snap-off) leaving the ink upon

6750-718: The release of the Creative Music System ("C/MS") CT-1300 board in August 1987. It contained two Philips SAA1099 integrated circuits, which, together, provided 12 channels of square-wave "bee-in-a-box" stereo sound, four channels of which can be used for noise. These ICs were featured earlier in various popular electronics magazines around the world. For many years Creative tended to use off-the-shelf components and manufacturers' reference designs for their early products. The various integrated circuits had white or black paper stickers fully covering their tops to hide their identities. On

6840-502: The release of the Sound Blaster Pro 2 version, Creative discontinued the original Sound Blaster Pro. The Sound Blaster Pro 2 was also sold with the following on-board CD-ROM controllers: Packaged Sound Blaster cards were initially marketed and sold into the retail-channel. Creative's domination of the PC audio card business soon had them selling the Sound Blaster Pro 2 OEM , CT1680, to customers for integration into pre-assembled PCs. Creative also sold Multimedia Upgrade Kits containing

6930-575: The result of ink residue trapped in the mesh, often in the knuckles of the mesh (the points where threads cross). A properly cleaned screen will not have any residual traces of the previous image apparent on its surface. A method of stenciling that has increased in popularity over the past years is the photo emulsion technique: Screen printing is more versatile than traditional printing techniques. The surface does not have to be printed under pressure, unlike etching or lithography , and it does not have to be planar. Different inks can be used to work with

7020-448: The screen to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed. One colour is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multi-coloured image or design. Traditionally, silk was used in the process. Currently, synthetic threads are commonly used. The most popular mesh in general use

7110-405: The slogan "Get Real", emphasizing its "real 100% Sound Blaster compatibility" and rhetorically asking "why those other manufacturers spend so much time comparing themselves to Sound Blaster". Compute! in 1989 stated that with Sound Blaster, "IBM-compatible computers have taken the lead in sound and music for personal computers". Naming it a Compute! Choice, the magazine described the quality of

7200-452: The squeegees, rotate and raise or lower pallets removing much of the manual labour from the task and use UV for instant image curing - resulting in significant reductions in operator fatigue as well as more consistent results. In electronic design automation , the silk screen is part of the layer stack of the printed circuit board (PCB), and the top and bottom sides are described in individual Gerber files like any other layers (such as

7290-425: The substrate surface. There are three common types of screen printing presses: flat-bed, cylinder, and rotary. A development of screen printing with flat screens from 1963 was to wrap the screen around to form a tube, with the ink supply and squeegee inside the tube. The resulting roller rotates at the same speed as the web in a roll-to-roll machine. The benefits are high output rates and long rolls of product. This

7380-574: The substrate. Screen printing first appeared in a recognizable form in China during the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD). It was then adapted by other Asian countries like Japan, and was further created using newer methods. Screen printing was largely introduced to Western Europe from Asia sometime in the late 18th century, but did not gain large acceptance or use in Europe until silk mesh was more available for trade from

7470-1272: The throughput of the whole cell production line. To print multiple copies of the screen design on garments in an efficient manner, amateur and professional printers usually use a screen printing press, which is a colloquial term as most screen printing machines are vastly different from offset printing presses . Many companies offer simple to sophisticated printing presses. These presses come in one of three types, manual (also referred to as handbench), semi-automatic, and fully automatic. Most printing companies will use one or more semi-automatic or fully automatic machines with manual machines for small runs and sampling. Whilst manual screen printing can be done with carousels, handbenches (both of which are often referred to colloquially as presses) or even on to tables. Semi- and fully-automatic machines are broken into two main categories; flatbed printers (poster, art printing or other flat substrates) and carousels and oval machines (garments and other apparel, amongst other textiles). Both which are fundamentally similar in terms of automation but differ in areas such as physical footprint and upgrade paths. These machines are much faster and use either pneumatic pressure generated by air compressors or use electric motors to draw

7560-423: The top-selling expansion card for the PC. It achieved this by providing an AdLib-compatible product, with additional features, for the same, and often lower, price. The inclusion of a game port was important to its early success. PCs of this era did not include a game port. Game port cards were costly (around US$ 50) and used one of the few expansion slots PCs had at the time. Given the choice between an AdLib card or

7650-462: Was capped at 96 kHz. In addition, Audigy 2 supported up to 6.1 (later 7.1 ) speakers and had improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) over the Audigy (106 vs. 100 decibels ( A )). It also featured built-in Dolby Digital EX 6.1 and 7.1 decoding for improved DVD play-back. The Audigy 2 line were the first sound cards to receive THX certification. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (September 2003)

7740-531: Was compliant with the MPC Level 2 standard. The Sound Blaster Pro 2 MCV, CT5330, was a version created for IBM PS/2 model 50 and higher and their MicroChannel bus. The next model, the Sound Blaster 16, announced in June 1992, introduced: Eventually this design proved so popular that Creative made a PCI version of this card. Creative's audio revenue grew from $ 40 million per year to nearly $ 1 billion following

7830-503: Was fully backward compatible with the original Sound Blaster line, and by extension, the AdLib sound card. The Sound Blaster Pro was the first Creative sound card to have a built-in CD-ROM interface. Most Sound Blaster Pro cards featured a proprietary interface for a Panasonic ( Matsushita MKE ) drive. The Sound Blaster Pro cards are basically 8-bit ISA cards, they use only the lower 8 data bits of

7920-569: Was introduced in August 1998, the use of a programmable digital signal processor in PC-audio was not unprecedented, as IBM had already done that with cheap Mwave sound- and modem-cards and Turtle Beach with their professional Hurricane soundcards. The Live! was built around Creative's new EMU10K1 chip, which contained 2.44 million transistors and was advertised of processing a flashy 1,000 MIPS . The EMU10K1 (and its successors) did not use on-card RAM/ROM storage for instrument samples, instead it used

8010-407: Was manufactured to print logos and team information on bowling garments, but was soon directed to the new fad of printing on T-shirts. The Vasilantone patent was licensed by multiple manufacturers and the resulting production and boom in printed T-shirts made this garment screen printing machine popular. Screen printing on garments currently accounts for over half of the screen printing activity in

8100-541: Was not yet compatible with the MPU-401 interface used by professional MIDI equipment. The Sound Blaster 2.0's PCB -layout used more highly integrated components, both shrinking the board's size and reducing manufacturing cost. Owners of previous revision Sound Blaster boards could upgrade their board by purchasing the V2.00 DSP chip from Creative Labs, and swapping the older DSP V1.0x with the newer replacement. The upgraded board gained

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