ESS ES688
The ES688 was the second audio chip in ESS' AudioDrive line, released in 1994.
|
Released | September 1994 |
| Bus | ISA 16-bit | |
| FM Synth | None | |
| Sample Range | N/A | |
| Standards | Ad Lib, Sound Blaster 2.0, Sound Blaster Pro, Windows Sound System | |
| Plug & Play | No | |
| See Also | ES488, ES1488 |
In 1994, ESS' AudioDrive range comprised the ES488, ES1488 and the top-of-the-range ES688. The ES688's main enhancement over the ES488 was stereo audio capability, a 5-channel mixer, and support for wavetable via its wavetable serial port.
The ES688 is compatible with Sound Blaster Pro when coupled with the Yamaha OPL3 (it was their last audio chip not to have a built-in FM synthesizer). Like the ES488, the ES688 also provided some power management capability.
The MPU-401 (UART) interface is emulated in software, so a driver must be loaded to use a wavetable daughterboard on these cards (ESSCFG.COM). There is also a TSR from ESS called ENMPU.EXE which is apparently required to enable the MPU-401 interface. Having said that, there are some later ES688-based cards that also had the ES968 interface chip as well, which provide hardware MPU-401 capability (so no driver is needed) as well as Plug & Play functionality for chips like the ES688 and ES1688 that were not natively PnP.
The ES688FC was a single, mixed signal VLSI chip found in various cards and was also embedded on motherboards. It offered 16-bit 44.1KHz stereo recording and playback (half-duplex, so only record or playback at any single time), a 5-channel mixer and ESPCM(R) compression (as well as ADPCM). The software volume control had 64 steps.
In September 1994, ESS announced Compaq would use the ES688 in their new Presario models. In November of the same year, they announced Hewlett-Packard had also chosen the ES688 for their new HP OmniBook 4000 notebook PC. Toshiba also embedded the ES688 in their Portege 610CT notebook computer.
ESS licenced its ES688FC chipset to numerous OEMs who produced their own cards, including:
- MultiWave AudioWave Green 16
- Magique Melodie
- Edison Gold-16
- MF-1115
- Formosa SC1616 (FCC ID: KWX-SC1616)
- UN-6868
- Unknown card (FCC ID: KLZ1007L)
- KYE Systems K-0234004 (FCC ID: FSUSM16E)
- Aspar Technology P057-01-A0A (FCC ID: K9J057A0A)
- HP Omnibook 4000
- Pine Technology PT-201
Some of these come with original Yamaha YMF262 OPL3 chips while others have unauthorised clones, such as those marked LS-212.
Revisions
There were two revisions of the ES688:
- ES688F
- ES688-FC
They are functionally identical and interchangeable.
Competition
Unlike their earlier ES488, ESS' ES688 was more popular. They successfully sold to OEMs including Compaq, Toshiba, and Hewlett-Packard, as well as to offshore sound card manufacturers.
In the Media
There is very little in the media about the ES688, most likely because it was largely sold to OEMs, missing the direct retail consumer market.
Setting it Up
Sound cards that use the ES688 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 ES688 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, the drivers will default to I/O base addresses from 220h - 22Fh for Sound Blaster, 388h - 389h for Ad Lib, IRQ 7, and DMA channel 1.
Downloads
Windows 95 came with built-in drivers for the ES688 (version 4.00 or 4.15).
ES688 Product Brief An early product brief for the ES688. |
Edison Gold-16 Disks The two utility and driver disks from Edison Gold-16 card. Includes DOS utilities ESSCFG and ESSVOL, and includes the Windows 3.x drivers. |
Compaq Windows 3.1 Disks The two utility and driver disks from a Compaq ES688-based card. |
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, |
Pictures
An ES688-based card with Yamaha YMF262-M (OPL3) and the full suite of CD-ROM interfaces
An Edison Gold-16 card with IDE and Panasonic CD-ROM interface
A Magique Melodie card
A UN-6868 card with both ES688 and ES968