



                         AudioDrive ES1868 OS/2 Driver

                                 Version 1.01

                            Software Release Notes

                               January 23, 1996




        About This Release

        ESS Technology is providing updated OS/2 drivers for the
        AudioDrive ES1868 chip in this Software Release.  These drivers
        are complete updates to prior ESS releases for OS/2 Warp 3.0.

        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 ES1868 OS/2 Device Driver,
                        Version 1.01

        Drivers:        ES1868 (with ESFM)

        OS:             OS/2 Warp 3.0

        Part Number:

        Release Date:   January 23, 1996




        Release Description

        The AudioDrive ES1868 OS/2 Driver Software Release incorporates
        the following features and new changes done to the previous
        release, Version 1.00.

        Version 1.00 Features

        Full-duplex capability

        The OS/2 driver supports playing and recording simultaneously 2
        mono wave files with same sample rate.


        ESFM support

        The OS/2 driver supports ESFM, ESS's advanced FM music synthesis
        technology.


        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.


        Hardware volume control support

        The OS/2 driver supports hardware volume control.  The volume
        settings are passed to MMPM/2 via a daemon program,
        ESDAEMON.EXE.


        Version 1.01 Features

        Device sharing between OS/2 and WINOS2

        This release adds WinOS2 audio support.  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.


        Version 1.01 Changes

        1. MIDI play is corrected for very fast I/O bus machines.

        2. An option to use DMA single mode transfer has been added.




        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.

        4. To be able to play and record wave files at the same time,
           the enforcement of only one active wave file by MMPM/2 is
           relaxed.  Therefore, some problems or erratic behaviors may
           pop up if two wave files are played.




        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 1868".  The program
           first 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
           checkmark beside AudioDrive ES1868 means that item is already
           selected.  Click the mouse on the item to toggle selection.
           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 ES1868 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.

        Since ES1868 is a plug and play board, in a system with plug and
        play support the optimal settings will be used instead of the
        settings specified in CONFIG.SYS.  If you change the ES1868
        settings in a system with no plug and play support, be sure to
        reset the computer for ES1868 to forget its previous settings.


        These are the files copied to your hard disk:

        \MMOS2
                ES1868DD.SYS
                TIMER0.SYS
                VAUDDRV.SYS
                ESDAEMON.EXE
        \MMOS2\DLL
                CARDINFO.DLL
                ESSVSD88.DLL
                WININST.DLL
                WINRES.DLL
        \MMOS2\HELP
                ES1868IN.HLP
        \OS2\BOOT
                CLOCK01.SYS
                CLOCK02.SYS
        \WINDOWS
                AUDDRIVE.HLP
                AUDMPU.HLP
        \WINDOWS\SYSTEM
                AUDMPU.DRV
                ES1868WN.386
                ES1868WN.DRV
                MIDIMAP.CFG
                MSMIXMGR.DLL
