What is: Creative PCI sound card SB-LINK™ ???

[boxergirl]

Looking at a Soyo Tek 6BB mobo. But I don't know what Creative PCI sound card SB-LINK™ is... I'm sending back the PC Wave M726 boards because of the floppy problems I posted in the tech discussion area. Hoping to get something a bit better. Has to be AT tho... and on the inexpensive side.

Thanks..

[Bleeding Edge]

The SB-link directs signals from the ISA bus to the PCI soundcard through a cable which comes with the PCI soundcard. This is because some DOS based games address the ISA bus directly.

But who plays DOS games?.

The official explanation of SB-Link, as posted on Creative's site is as follows (I don't think you really want to know, but..)

SB-LINK combines Intel's PC-PCI and "Serialized IRQ" protocols. These technologies can be found in Intel's TX, LX and newer core logic chip sets. This technology provides the DMA and IRQ signals present in ISA Bus today, but not available on the PCI Bus. The SB-LINK serves as a bridge between the motherboard and PCI sound card to deliver Sound Blaster 16 compatibility for real-mode DOS games, a widely accepted audio standard in Multimedia Personal Computers. SB-LINK, endorsed by leading motherboard suppliers, is becoming a standard audio connector on new motherboards. With SB-LINK, sound card users can look forward to the best gaming experience ever.

For your own cherished sanity, please consider Tyan's S1830 Tsunami. It is a baby-AT form factor board with the BX chipset, supporting up to a 500Mhz PII/III and Celeron CPUs. It has some unique features. All the goods of the ATX on an AT board. It can even use an AT or ATX power supply.

One place to buy it would be here. http://necxdirect.necx.com/cgi-bin/auth/:guest/simple_q?cifilelnk=0001251

And for your convenience http://www.tyan.com/products/html/s1830s_sl.html the info for the board.

[This message has been edited by Bleeding Edge (edited 04-18-99).]