The
Ensoniq
Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally Sampler (musical instrument), samplers and synthesizers.
Company history
In spring 1983, former MO ...
ESP was used in many of the company's musical instruments and on their
Soundscape Elite PC
ISA
Isa or ISA may refer to:
Places
* Isa, Amur Oblast, Russia
* Isa, Kagoshima, Japan
* Isa, Nigeria
* Isa District, Kagoshima, former district in Japan
* Isa Town, middle class town located in Bahrain
* Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia
* Mount Is ...
sound card. It was used to enhance the synthesizer's audio samples with digital effects, enhancing the realism of the overall sound.
The ESP chip was a custom
digital signal processor
A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor chip, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. DSPs are fabricated on MOS integrated circuit chips. They are widely used in audio si ...
(DSP) chip with over 75,000
transistors
upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink).
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...
. It had an
instruction set
In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA), also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer. A device that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called an ' ...
that was optimized for manipulating audio data, which has typical
sample rates of between 10 kHz and 50 kHz. The ESP was capable of creating a wide range of digital effects including
reverb
Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...
,
delay
Delay (from Latin: dilatio) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Delay 1968'', a 1981 album by German experimental rock band Can
* ''The Delay'', a 2012 Uruguayan film
People
* B. H. DeLay (1891–1923), American aviator and acto ...
,
echo,
flanging,
chorusing,
harmonizing,
equalization, and
distortion, and was capable of generating multiple effects simultaneously.
The ESP was a
VLSI
Very large-scale integration (VLSI) is the process of creating an integrated circuit (IC) by combining millions or billions of MOS transistors onto a single chip. VLSI began in the 1970s when MOS integrated circuit (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) c ...
device designed in a 1.0
micrometre
The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Unit ...
double-metal
CMOS
Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFE ...
process. The multiplicity and flexibility of the data paths in the ESP allowed many DSP operations to be accomplished in a minimum number of
microinstructions steps. Its nominal instruction cycle was 250
ns, yielding program lengths from about 64 to 160 microinstructions at typical sample rates. Because the ESP chip was fully
programmable, the range of effects was unlimited.
The major features of the ESP chip were:
*48 Pin
DIP or 52 Pin
PLCC
*Separate Address Generator
ALU
*4 Programmable Serial I/O Channels (
I²S or Sony Format)
*On-Chip Data and Microprogram Memory
*8-Bit Address/Data Multiplexed Host
CPU
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...
Interface
*External Sample Rate Synchronization
*Multiplexed Addressing for Simple
DRAM
Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxid ...
Interface
*Host Access to ESP DRAM
The architecture of the ESP chip was implemented by the following major components:
*ALU - 24-bit wide, capable of 16 different instructions
*Multiplier - 24x24 bit with dedicated 48 bit
accumulator
*Separate Address Generator ALU
*Microinstruction Memory Array (160 x 45 bits)
*
General Purpose Register Array (192 x 24 bits)
*23 Special Purpose Registers
*Three 24-bit wide data paths
*Serial Digital I/O (4 stereo channels, I2S or Sony)
*Host interface
References
*{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980214015733/www.ensoniq.com/multimedia/semi_html/index.htm , date=February 14, 1998 , title=Ensoniq Home Page ESP Datasheet by Ensoniq Corp., Semiconductors Information, 1998
Sound cards