Trident 4DWave DX / NX
The Trident 4D Wave DX and 4D Wave NX were the only audio chipsets produced by Trident Microsystems.
|
Released | 1998 |
| Bus | PCI | |
| Standards | Emulated FM, DirectSound, DirectSound 3D, DirectMusic, Aureal A3D | |
| Wavetable | Onboard (uses System RAM) | |
| See Also |
The 4DWave chipset family were PCI audio chipsets from Trident that included an onboard wavetable and support for Microsoft DirectMusic, DirectSound, DirectSound 3D and legacy applications.
They also had 3D positional audio capability that was DirectSound 3D-compatible - this was provided by QSound's Q3D.
The onboard wavetable made use of system memory for its instrument samples - these were in DLS format with 2, 4 or 8 MB sample file sizes.
For legacy applications in pure DOS, both Distributed DMA (DDMA) and non-DDMA PCI chipsets were supported. Having said that, be warned its 'Virtual FM' is utterly terrible, according to a YT video here. Furthermore, many versions of the driver sets available online don't support the loading of software wavetables - this apparently was removed in later drivers, but available in the earliest ones. Out of the box, these drivers usually come with sample sets of 1 MB, 1.5 MB, 2 MB and 6 MB. If you do get to run it in General MIDI mode, it sounds ok under Windows.
The 4DWave-DX was the cheaper of the two, offering standard 2-channel (stereo) audio only.
The 4DWave-NX chipset added 4-channel output and an S/PDIF in/out jack.
The Trident 4DWave-DX can be found on the following cards:
- EPC-C4DWV840 (see images here)
- Shark Predator 3D
The Trident 4DWave-NX can be found on the following cards:
Competition
In the Media
The 4DWAVE-DX integrates a 64-voice wavetable engine with per voice effect processing capability. It supports the upcoming Microsoft® DirectMusic™ API and is fully compatible with the DLS Level 1 (downloadable samples) specification. The 4DWAVE DX is optimized for Microsoft® Windows® 98 and Windows® NT™5.0 WDM streaming architecture with re-routable endpoint support. 4DWAVE-DX integrates DirectX™ 5 3D positional audio accelerator by incorporating QSound® Labs’ QSoft3D™ technology. It includes DirectSound3D™ acceleration hardware for ITD (Interaural Time Difference), IID (Interaural Intensity Difference), Pan, Delay, and Doppler hardware.
VirtualFM™and VirtualGS™ technologies maintain SoundBlaster™ Pro/16 DOS games compatibility while improving gaming audio quality. The 4DWAVE-DX utilizes a Digital Enhanced Game Port, when coupled with a DirectInput™ driver, can save up to 12% of the CPU overhead nominally required by a conventional analog game port. The 4DWAVE-DX employs a high precision 26-bit digital mixer, providing an accurate 20-bit output and higher than 90dB signal-to-noise ratio when used with a high quality AC ’97 codec.
The 4DWAVE-DX is designed with aggressive power management in mind as well. It is both ACPI-compliant and PCI Bus Power Management Interface (PPMI)-compliant. With a low power 3.3V process and a space conscious 100 LQFP package, the 4DWAVE-DX is well suited for Notebook systems as well.
The 4DWAVE-DX delivers an impressive combination of features and performance to end-users without burdening them on price. By combining PCI Bus Mastering for DirectSound™ acceleration, Hardware Wavetable synthesizer, Digital Enhanced Game Port, and interactive 3D positional audio acceleration through QSoft3D™, the 4DWAVE-DX provides up to a 40% system level performance enhancement over an equivalent ISA audio controller. It delivers high performance, high quality audio, high end features with efficient power management in a single-chip in a space-efficient 100 LQFP package.
It is forward socket-compatible with future 4DWAVE family products. This document will briefly describe signals in future products to enable system designers to accommodate the future 4DWAVE family products with one design, substantially simplifying future design and testing efforts."
Trident Microsystems website, 1998
Setting it Up
You must also install the card into PCI slot 0 to avoid hardware conflicts.
Downloads
4DWave-DX Datasheet Trident 4D Wave DX Audio Controller datasheet |
4DWave-NX Datasheet Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
4DWave DOS Utilities
DOS utilities including WAVEINIT and DOSMIX |
4DWave Windows 95 Driver
Windows 95 audio drivers for DX and NX |
4DWave Windows NT 4 Driver
Windows NT 4.0 audio drivers for DX and NX. |
4DWave Windows 2000 Driver
Windows 2000 WDM audio drivers for DX and NX. |
More Pictures
An EPC C4DWV840 with Trident 4DWave-DX, pics courtesy of DOS Days contributor, targeted.
A Hoontech Soundtrack Digital 4DWave NX, pics courtesy of DOS Days contributor, targeted.