ESS ES1488
The ES1488 was the third audio chip in ESS' AudioDrive line, released in March 1994.
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Released | March 1994 |
| Bus | ISA 16-bit | |
| FM Synth | Integrated ESFM | |
| Sample Range | N/A | |
| Standards | Ad Lib, Sound Blaster 2.0, Sound Blaster Pro, ESFM | |
| Plug & Play | No | |
| See Also | ES488, ES688, ES1688 |
In between the mono ES488 from 1993 and the stereo ES688 that would arrive later in 1994, ESS released the ES1488.
Most crucially, the ES1488 was ESS' first card to include their enhanced stereo OPL-3-compatible FM implementation, called ESFM™, embedded in the audio chip. This helped not only to provide new functionality but also to reduce the component count [and hence cost] of sound cards and motherboards that used it.
The ES1488 is socket compatible with the ES1688.
In March 1995, ESS announced that Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) had chosen the ES1488 AudioDrive chip for their new notebook PC, the HiNote Ultra.
"In the Digital HiNote Ultra, we wanted a notebook design with a sleek and light form and with 'no-sacrifice' performance features," said Mark Foster, Director of Engineering for Mobile Products in Digital's PC Business Unit. "The 1-inch vertical height of the Digital HiNote Ultra mandated a feature-packed design with high integration. ESS Technology, Inc.'s ES1488 AudioDrive provided a high-quality music synthesis solution in a single chip, and the ES1488's compatibility with audio standards and games software standards enables 16-bit multimedia applications on our platform."
Later revisions of the HiNote Ultra came with the ES1688.
According to this project change on GitHub, the ES1488 is unsupported by DOS games that use the Miles Sound System and does not have ESFM MIDI support in its Windows driver. These issues were corrected with the ES1688.
Revisions
I have no information on the revision history of the ES1488.
Competition
Similar to their earlier ES488, ESS' ES1488 didn't seem to sell well, aside from a few manufacturers embedding the audio IC in their motherboards.
In the Media
There is very little in the media about the ES1488, most likely because it was largely sold to OEMs, missing the direct retail consumer market.
Setting it Up
For information on how to configure your card, please check your sound card's user manual. In the absence of this, read on.
Sound cards that use the ES1488 will likely have jumpers or DIP switches to configure the card's I/O Base Address (220h or 240h), IRQ (2, 3, 5 or 7) and DMA channel (1 or 3). The default configuration is likely base address 220h, IRQ 7, and DMA channel 1. Some of these jumper settings will be overridden in software using the ESSCFG utility.
The ES1488 does not require any device drivers to be loaded for use in DOS. Just be sure to have your BLASTER environment variable set, for example have this in your AUTOEXEC.BAT:
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T3
For Windows, ESS provided drivers for Windows 3.x, Windows NT, Windows 95, and IBM OS/2. These drivers will default to an I/O base address of 220h for Sound Blaster, 388h for Ad Lib, IRQ 7, and DMA channel 1.
There is no specific mode-switching utility to change between the ES1488's Native mode (ESFM) and Legacy mode (Sound Blaster Pro-compatible). This happens automatically, with Native mode being selected by the game if you have configured it to use 'ESS AudioDrive' in its setup program. The ES1688 always starts up in Legacy mode upon power-on or reset.
Downloads
ES1488 Datasheet Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Windows 3.x Drivers ESS AudioDrive ISA card drivers for ES488/688/1488/1688/1788/1888, plus MPU-401, ESSVOL and ESSCFG. |
Windows 95 Drivers ESS AudioDrive ISA card drivers for ES488/688/1488/1688/1788/1868/1878/1888, |
Windows 98SE Drivers ESS AudioDrive ISA card drivers for ES488/688/1488/1688/1788/1868/1878/1888, |
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Pictures