@5150.adf ChipChat Sound Card (Official ADF, uses IRQ7)
@5150.adf ChipChat Sound Card (Modified to use IRQ5, rename to @5150.adf)
chipchat1.zip Drivers for DOS, Win (3.1, 95, NT), OS/2 (zipped image) (thx Lionel Harris!)
Original image w/ corrupted SUPPORT.TXT file
chipchat1fix.zip Drivers for DOS, Win (3.1, 95, NT), OS/2 (zipped image)
Same as above but w/ fixed SUPPORT.TXT file
cc1.zip Drivers for DOS, Win (3.1, 95, NT), OS/2 (zipped files only)
Contains a slightly different SUPPORT.TXT file, missing boot files
chipchat2.zip Windows utilities and samples (zipped image) (thx Lionel Harris!)
chipchat155_1.zip Early ChipChat software rev. 1.55 - disk 1 (zipped image) (thx Christian Forstreuter!)
chipchat155_2.zip Early ChipChat software rev. 1.55 - disk 2 (zipped image) (thx Christian Forstreuter!)
ChipChat Sound User's Guide (Rev. F) (from disk 1)
ChipChat Site (still alive)
ChatChip Reloaded expression of interest (replica of ChipChat Rev. C)
ChipChat Sound Card Rev. B
ChipChat Sound Card Rev. C
ChipChat Reloaded Sound Card
Wavetable Daughterboard
IRQ7 to IRQ5 ADF Hack
Generic Setup Values
Configuring ChipChat for DOS Games
ChipChat Under Linux
General Technics Sound Card
ADF Section
Note: ChipChat 32 is the same card as ChipChat 16
but it comes together with a Wavetable module.
ChipChat Sound Card Rev. B
Rev. B, FCC ID L8LMCAUDIO
(photos by Ch. Forstreuter; came with disks v1.55)
There are no visible reference designators on the board. The designators
shown here are made up.

J1,2 1/8" jack to Ultimedia?
P1 Line In
P2 Microphone In
P3 Headphone/Speaker Out
P4 Joystick/MIDI port
P5 Ultimedia Front Panel
P6 Sound Blaster CD Audio (GLGR)
P7 Generic CD Audio (GLGR)
P8 IBM CD Audio (RGGL)
|
P9 Generic CD Audio (RGGL)
P10 Unpopulated CD input
P11 Wavetable header
U1 ES1688F
U2,3 Altera EPM7032LC44-15T EPLD
U4,5 LM386 Audio op-amp
U6 NE558D Quad timer
U7 Pads for ES689F ? Wavetable Synthesizer
U8 Pads for ES981(S) ? Sample ROM
|
P5
Ultimedia Front Panel pin header, 2x8,
1/10 inch
P6,8 Sound Blaster and IBM CD Audio
shrouded pin header, 1x4, 2 mm
P7,9 Generic CD Audio pin Header, 1x4,
1/10 inch
This adapter supports the
Audio Sum Node
signal, allowing audio output to be sent to the internal PC speaker.
See also: ESS ES690/ES981 Datasheet,
Archived ESS Website
Christian Forstreuter said:
The card works nice, but the old dosmixer version has no IRQ
option. I tried the newer dosmixer, but the IRQ change to 5 does not work. So,
I think the early CPLD logic does not support IRQ change - it can only use IRQ
7.
ChipChat Sound Card Rev. C
Rev. C, FCC ID L8LMCAUDIO
|
|
(photos by A. Paterakis, Ch. Holzapfel and Raymangold22)
There are no visible reference designators on the board. The designators
shown here are made up.

Same as above, except the pads for U7
and U8 are missing, and the PCB layout
is slightly different. The CPLD programming may be a newer revision.
ChipChat Reloaded Sound Card
Rev. 2
|
Rev. 3
(photos by Christian Holzapfel)

This is a near 1:1 replica of the ChipChat Rev. C card, with only minor
layout and passive component differences.
For technical details and ordering information, see the
ChatChip Reloaded expression of interest page.
Wavetable Daughterboard
The wavetable interface is standardized. Many different modules should be
compatible with the ChipChat card.
TMI Multimedia TMI-1080B
MD Wavetable Rev. 1.1A
|
JP1 Base card header (male)
U1 i8032 MCU
U2 MX27C512QC-15 64Kx8 EPROM
U3 QDSP QS700 AdMOS
U4 MX23C1010 QS703 AdMOS 1994,1995
U6 MX23C8000 QS702 AdMOS 1994,1995
Y1 16.000 kHz? xtal
Y2 45.1584 MHz osc
Found on an early ChipChat Rev.B.
|
IRQ7 to IRQ5 ADF Hack
The ChipChat sound card is set to occupy IRQ7, which might
cause strange effects under Win95 with LPT1. Edit the "fixed resource"
IRQ7 to IRQ5 (default setting for LPT2) - and everything will be fine.
From ChipChat (edited):
To use IRQ5, you need to make the following modifications:
- Change @5150.adf file replacing "int 7" with "int 5" (or download the
modified file HERE)
Note: You must re-configure your system after
updating the ADF.
- DOS Autoexec.bat, change DOSMIXER statement from "-7" to "-5"
- Win31 SYSTEM.INI, change [auddrive.drv] from "int=7" to "int=5"
- OS2 Config.sys, change device=ES1688DD.SYS from "/I:7" to "/I:5"
- Win95, use device manager to change interrupt from 7 to 5
- WinNT, re-install and select interrupt 5
Generic Setup Values
Sound Address 220 (may interfere with a primary TR adapter)
Interrupt Level 7 (5 supported, I see 2, 5, 7, and 10 listed in W95 doc)
DMA Arb 1 (maybe 0,1,3 supported)
General MIDI MPU-401 330
Configuring ChipChat for DOS Games
Source: DOSMIXER Readme File (from the ChipChat
support disk)
Some DOS games require the sound card to be initialized to a special state.
If you encounter any issues running a DOS game run the "DOSMIXER" with the "-G"
option. Games like "DOOM" and "HERETIC" require this setting. Games such as
"Rise of the Triad" do not. For the games that require the "-G" option, we
suggest you put the DOSMIXER statement in a batch file to run the particular
game.
For example, to run HERETIC, create HER.BAT with the following:
DOSMIXER -M15 -W15 -G
HERETIC
To play the game type "HER".
Also run "DOSMIXER -G" before running "SETUP" for the game.
If you experience any problem with games, experiment with using DOSMIXER -G.
Most games require the "-G", a few games may work better without it. The
DOSMIXER sets up registers on the sound card. It does not stay resident in
memory so running it will not use up any memory.
ChipChat Under Linux
Christian Holzapfel wrote (edited):
The ChipChat can be used under Linux 2.2 and 2.4 using the
built-in "SB" Sound Blaster driver module. It will correctly detect the ESS
chip.
Auto-loading the module through /etc/modules always failed for me, but it
can be loaded manually:
modprobe opl3 io=0x388
modprobe sb io=0x220 dma=1 irq=5 mpu_io=0x330
Set the IRQ according to your ADF (7 or 5).
General Technics Sound Card
Source: William Walsh (original HERE)
At first I didn't realize it, but this may be a relabeled ChipChat sound
card... dunno for sure. Looks confusing to me, but that's what I get for asking
and investigating.
Adapter ID is 5150 - same as the ChipChat version... but this card actually
looks more like 5130 - the Piper Research
SoundPiper... it would be the same card except for the sticker that's on
the one Altera IC. Yet if we look at the SoundPiper
page, neither of those adapters match mine and the one pictured above. So
what the heck is going on here? ChipChat's
picture
(original) agrees
with mine almost 100%.
Ed. Tom: Are all these cards different revisions of
the same base design?
General Technics is still around. They sell
industrial and rackmount computers of assorted types. At one time they also
sold some different PS/2 and MCA upgrade parts. Don't go to their site
expecting much in the way of information on these things.
ADF Section for 05150h "ChipChat Sound Card"
ChipChat Sound Card Selection
<Enabled
(io 0200h-020Fh 0220h-022Fh 0388h-038Bh 0330h-033Fh int 7 arb 1)>, Disabled
Resources are fixed because many software programs assume and
require these settings. Address Range (hex): [200-20F, 220-22F, 388-38B, 330-33F]
DMA Arbitration Level:[1], IRQ Interrupt:[7].
|