Crystal CS-4232

The CS4232 was Crystal's first combined multimedia audio controller and codec, introduced in 1995.

	Released	1995
	Bus	ISA 16-bit
	FM Synth	None
	Sample Range	4 - 50 kHz
	Packages	100-pin TQFP (-KQ) or 100-pin PQFP (-KM)
	Standards	None
	Plug & Play	Yes
	See Also	CS-4248, CS-4236

The CS4232 was Crystal's first ISA Plug & Play and MPC Level 2-compliant codec, designed to take multiple analogue audio inputs, convert them into a digital signal, apply filtering and then convert them back into a combined/mixed analogue audio signal.

In addition to its codec functions, it had a joystick port, MPU-401-compatible MIDI interface, and an optional CD-ROM interface. The CS4232 was designed for Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, and Windows Sound System. It had no integrated FM chip so most cards that use the CS4232 would also have an OPL3 or compatible chip.
Requires DOS initialisation for the MPU-401 interface to work in Windows.

Found on:

• Acer Magic S32/S23 (S23 uses Crystal CS4232, S32 uses Creative's Vibra-16S chipset)
• Terratec Maestro 32/96 - with Crystal/Dream SAM9233 wavetable synthesizer
• Reveal SC500 Rev. 3 "SoundFX Wave"
• CrystaLake Multimedia 120 (1 MB) wavetable
• CrystaLake Multimedia 140 (4 MB) wavetable
• Ad Lib ASB4
• Turtle Beach Tropez Plus
• Orchid NuSound 32PNP

Revisions

Competition

 

In the Media

 

Setting it Up

Crystal wrote their own device drivers called "CrystalWare" for the CS-423x family. These were available for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 3.5x.

It is usually recommended that you use the installation software from your sound card's manufacturer, but in the absence of those, try one of the generic ones in the Downloads section below.

Downloads

Datasheet Mar 1995	CrystalWare Drivers v1.8, 14 Feb 1997 Extracted from the Turtle Beach Malibu driver disk, believed to be unmodified from the Crystal v1.8 reference drivers.	Windows 3.1 Drivers v1.8, 14 Feb 1997 Compatible with CS4232, CS4236, CS4237B, and CS4238B chipsets.
Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 Drivers v1.51, 30 Oct 1996 Compatible with CS4232 and CS4236 chipsets	Windows 95 Drivers v1.8, 14 Nov 1996 Compatible with CS4232, CS4236, CS4237B, and CS4238B chipsets.	OS/2 Warp & Merlin Drivers v1.60, 25 Nov 1996 Compatible with CS4231, CS4232, CS4236, CS4237B, and CS4238B chipsets.