Crystal CS-4236

The CS4236 was Crystal's third combined multimedia audio controller and codec, introduced in early 1996.

	Released	Early 1996
	Bus	ISA 16-bit
	FM Synth	(Embedded)
	Sample Range	4 - 50 kHz
	Packages	100-pin TQFP (-JQ or -KQ)
	Standards	Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Windows Sound System
	Plug & Play	Yes
	See Also	CS-4231, CS-4232, CS-4235

The CS4236 was a complete audio solution on a single chip. It was fully compliant with the Microsoft PC '97 (MPC Level 2) and WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) audio requirements.
It supported full duplex, was Plug & Play, and featured an FM synthesizer on-chip compatible with Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro and Windows Sound System.

In addition to its codec functions, it had a joystick port, MPU-401-compatible MIDI interface, and an optional CD-ROM interface.

CS4236 had low noise, did not suffer from the hanging note bug on the MPU-401 interface and decent compatibility with Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro and Windows Sound System.

The non-'B' revision can be found on:

• Terratec EWS64 S / EWS64 XL
• Ad Lib Multimedia MSC16 PnP
• Some Guillemot Maxi Sound 64 cards (other variants of this card use ESS 1868F)
• SM423X Rev 3.10

The 'B' revision can be found on Intel SE440BX motherboard (1998) as well as:

• Terratec EWS64L and XL
• MediaForte(?) MF-4236PW
• Serenade SR-S161-F
• Kentech Music-16 (FCC ID: KJD-MUSIC16)

Revisions

The CS4236 is 100% backward-compatible with the CS4232 / CS4232A.

There are two revisions of the CS4236:

Rev.0 (non-'B') - Requires DOS initialisation for the MPU-401 to work in Windows
Rev.1 ('B') - No DOS initialisation necessary for MPU-401 to work in Windows

Competition

 

In the Media

 

Setting it Up

Downloads

The drivers below are the generic Crystal drivers for the 4236 and related/compatible models in the CX423x family.

Datasheet Jan 1996	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.