Author Archives: Michal Necasek

Finally Free

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Michal Necasek

For a while I’ve been toying with the idea of buying the full official MIDI specification, but never went through with it. Not so much because of the cost ($100 for the core spec) but because of the hassle. Only … Continue reading →

Posted in Documentation, MIDI | 6 Comments

Gravis Ultras

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Michal Necasek

While researching 1990s sound cards with wavetable synths, I came across an interesting resource called Rich Heimlich’s Patch Set Overview, namely issue #5 from July 1995. When I tried to unearth older issues of same, I stumbled upon a curious … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Labs, Internet, PC history, Sound, UltraSound | 18 Comments

Getting Organized, Finally

Posted on December 16, 2016 by Michal Necasek

After years of looking for a good storage solution for 386 chips, I accidentally stumbled upon it: This is a relatively modern CPU tray, designed for—I believe—Socket G processors, It turns out that old ceramic PGA 386s fit in the … Continue reading →

Posted in 386, PC hardware | 11 Comments

Tahiti + Rio = Monterey

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Michal Necasek

The talk is, of course, about Turtle Beach sound cards. I finally got hold of a 1994 Turtle Beach Rio daughterboard which came mounted on an ISA sound card. On closer inspection the card turned out to be a Turtle … Continue reading →

Posted in MIDI, Sound, Wave Blaster | 23 Comments

Mystery NetBurst

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Michal Necasek

Some time ago, a mysterious CPU showed up at the OS/2 Museum: It is a Socket 775 CPU with a Pentium 4 label and the following markings: 3.73 GHZ/1M/1066/A4. In other words, 3.73 GHz clock speed, 1 MB L2 cache, … Continue reading →

Posted in Intel, Pentium 4 | 34 Comments

Alt Insanity

Posted on November 17, 2016 by Michal Necasek

Several times, a question came up how to synthesize keyboard input to a remote system given a text string. The remote system is typically but not necessarily a VM. That sounds like something which should be trivial, yet it is anything but. … Continue reading →

Posted in Virtualization, Windows | 14 Comments

Capacitors, Ugh

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Michal Necasek

So I’m looking at an ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe board that stopped working some time ago and I had no time to figure out why. The board is from early 2008, not exactly vintage hardware, or at least not just yet. It … Continue reading →

Posted in PC hardware | 10 Comments

Fun with AGP

Posted on October 28, 2016 by Michal Necasek

Several months ago, I retook possession of a PC which I had built back in 2003 (I think—it’s been a while). It is based on an Intel D865PERL (Rock Lake) board and a Northwood 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 with hyper-threading (HT). … Continue reading →

Posted in AGP, Pentium 4 | 27 Comments

More on DXP44Q

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Michal Necasek

While pondering the DXP44Q mystery again, I realized that one of my sound cards most likely could be equipped with a DXP44Q. Here’s the card: It’s a pretty standard Sound Blaster clone. Note that the OPTi 924 chips is only … Continue reading →

Posted in PC hardware, Sound | 4 Comments

Intel OverDrive Part III: Pentium II OverDrive

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Michal Necasek

Pentium II OverDrive The Pentium II OverDrive, released in August 1998, was the swan song of the OverDrive product line. It is suitable for Socket 8 systems as an upgrade of 150-200 MHz Pentium Pro processors. Only one model was sold with … Continue reading →

Posted in Intel, Pentium II, Pentium Pro | 22 Comments