AudioDrive ES1488 OS/2 Driver

                                 Version 1.00

                            Software Release Notes

                                 April 4, 1996




        About This Release

        ESS Technology is providing OS/2 drivers for the AudioDrive
        ES1488 chip in this Software Release.

        This document provides:
        - a description of the changes to the drivers
        - installation notes

        Please read this document completely before you upgrade your
        system, and follow the instructions carefully.




        Release Information

        Product:        AudioDrive ES1488 OS/2 Device Driver,
                        Version 1.00

        Drivers:        ES1488 (with OPL2)

        OS:             OS/2 Warp 3.0

        Part Number:

        Release Date:   April 4, 1996




        Release Description

        The AudioDrive ES1488 OS/2 Driver Software Release incorporates
        the following features.

        Version 1.00 Features

        APM support

        The OS/2 driver supports Advanced Power Management (APM).  It is
        recommended that users stop audio applications before putting
        the system into Suspend mode.


        Device sharing between OS/2 and WINOS2

        The audio device can be shared between Windows applications and
        OS/2 under an exclusive sharing arrangement.  If the device is
        not currently being used by an OS/2 application, when Windows
        runs an audio application, Windows will own the audio device
        until the Windows application (or session) is terminated.  Then
        ownership will pass to the next application requesting it (OS/2
        or Windows).  This all occurs while maintaining the state of the
        device for all applications.


        Input monitoring

        Input source monitoring during non-recording time is
        implemented.  However, there are some limitations to this
        feature due to the design of MMPM/2.  When Digital Audio comes
        up, the default microphone input source is used.  If you want to
        switch to line in, you must start recording to send the
        information down to the driver.  Note that ES1488 does not
        support input monitoring during recording.




        Known Problems

        1. Opening too many MIDI files makes the OS/2 system unstable.
           This problem is related to MMPM/2 and depends on system
           resource.  On systems with 8 Mbs memory, the limit is 3;
           16 Mbs, 6.

        2. Tempo in MIDI files may not be 100% accurate due to timing
           delay and MMPM/2 architecture.

        3. Running MCI commands "seek wave to #" and then "play wave" to
           a 16-bit wave file sometimes generates very loud static
           noise.  Likewise using "record wave from #" to record a
           16-bit wave file may generate wrong file.  It all depends on
           the seek position.




        Installation Notes

        To install the new drivers successfully the following steps must
        be taken:

        1. Open an OS/2 Window and run the EINSTALL.EXE program on the
           installation disk by typing "A:EINSTALL."  The program first
           runs ESDETECT.EXE to auto-detect the chip, then calls
           ESUNINST.EXE to remove old drivers.  That program will create
           a backup of CONFIG.SYS named CONFIG.ESS and remove the audio
           device lines from CONFIG.SYS.  It also creates a backup of
           MMPM2.INI named MMPM2.ESS and removes the audio drivers
           information from MMPM2.INI.  In addition, it removes any
           other ESS driver information in COMPLIST.INI.  After then,
           the installation program calls Multimedia Application Install
           program, MINSTALL.EXE.

        2. When Multimedia Application Install program brings up, a
           check mark beside AudioDrive ES1488 means that item is
           already selected.  To toggle selection, click the mouse on
           the item.  If WinOS2 is installed in the system, you can
           select WinOS2/Windows Audio support also.  If not, make sure
           that item is not checked.  Click the Install button to start
           the installation.  Once the drivers are installed, shutdown
           OS/2 and reset the computer for the new ES1488 drivers to
           take effect.

        3. Since this version of MINSTALL.EXE changes the icons of MIDI
           player and Digital Video player to that of Digital Audio
           player in the Multimedia folder, you may want to change them
           back to the originals.  To change the icon of MIDI player,
           right click MIDI player to bring up the menu.  Select
           Settings, select General, and click the Find... button.  In
           the Start Folder window, enter \MMOS2\INSTALL.  Click the
           Find button and a window of all found icons appears.  Select
           MIDIPLAY.ICO and click OK.  Close the MIDI player Settings
           notebook.  For Digital Video player, repeat the above steps
           but select VIDPLAY.ICO instead.

        4. If the MIDI plays are not smooth in WinOS2, you need to
           change the timer resolution.  Edit SYSTEM.INI in your Windows
           directory.  Under [timer.drv] are TIMERMax386Res and
           TIMERMax286Res.  You need to change the values to less than 8
           from the default of 10.


        These are the files copied to your hard disk:

        \MMOS2
                ES1488DD.SYS
                VAUDDRV.SYS
        \MMOS2\DLL
                CARDINFO.DLL
                ESSVSD88.DLL
                WININST.DLL
                WINRES.DLL
        \MMOS2\HELP
                ES1488IN.HLP
        \OS2\BOOT
                CLOCK01.SYS
                CLOCK02.SYS
                TIMER0.SYS
        \WINDOWS
                AUDDRIVE.HLP
        \WINDOWS\SYSTEM
                AUDMPIO.DRV
                ES1488WN.386
                ES1488WN.DRV
                MIDIMAP.CFG
                MSMIXMGR.DLL