SpritesMind.Net

Hi everyone !

I'm currently working on a hardware implementation of the YM2612 chip. My goal would be to make a MIDI synth with multiple YM2612 chips inside. My first circuit is a very basic implementation with a Teensy++ 2.0 board but for the moment, it doesn't work. Since I don't have a real Genesis, I ordered the YM chips on UTSource but, I'm starting having doubts about them.

Here's a pic (click to see in fullsize) :



Could somebody tell me if they seem genuine to you ?

I also have problems with cristal oscillators. The only working one I have is at 3.68 Mhz which I know is almost two times slower than the recommended clock rate. Do you simply think it could damage the YM2612 or simply make it run slower (is the YM2612 a static component ?)

Thanks for your answers !

Cheers !

The chips look ok to me and running them slower will not cause any harm, nor will running them faster.
One design I am working on uses more than double recommended speed for one chip, to do very nice high notes on it without as much aliasing artifacts.

So they still make those things?

As for checking if they work, perhaps get a MD1, solder a socket there and test those chips to be sure.

Those chips are by Toshiba and from 1988
Yamaha could not make any hcips themselves, they used other companies to get them done i.e Toshiba, NEC, Sharp, Fujitsu.

Also you should look at this last year post

I explained how it will be doable... with a teensy
Implement Audio In and it should work.
Let me know how it is going, I'm really interested since it was one of my dropped projects